How is it unethical? If you live in a village with two bakeries and one, your favorite, starts charging you double for their delicious bread, you then start shopping at the other one who’s bread is terrible, but suitable enough. Now, faced with competition, your favorite bakery lowers their price, so you go back to your favorite.
Now, the second bakery is hanging on by a thread because you aren’t buying his bad bread. He decides to get out of the bakery business so he can use the money to invest in his roofing business instead. You see an opportunity to make even better bread than the best bakery, so you agree to buy the second bakery.
Nothing unethical at all there. That’s exactly how free markets are supposed to work. The key point is that nobody forced Intel to make bad modems and nobody should be obligated to pay Qualcomm’s high prices. It isn’t Apple’s fault that Intel modems weren’t that good. It isn’t Apple’s fault they want to build something better than other market participants are currently providing.
That isn’t really fair to Apple (or long game, Intel) though. That basically says that it is in Apple’s best interest to never deal with Intel because in doing so, Intel becomes dependent upon them. If they would’ve remained with Qualcomm from day one, Intel’s shortcomings in mobile (iirc, Intel and Windows Phone tried to pair up a bit) could never be blamed on Apple.
That arrangement may work totally for Qualcomm and somewhat for Apple, but it’d be devastating for Intel.
Now, the second bakery is hanging on by a thread because you aren’t buying his bad bread. He decides to get out of the bakery business so he can use the money to invest in his roofing business instead. You see an opportunity to make even better bread than the best bakery, so you agree to buy the second bakery.
Nothing unethical at all there. That’s exactly how free markets are supposed to work. The key point is that nobody forced Intel to make bad modems and nobody should be obligated to pay Qualcomm’s high prices. It isn’t Apple’s fault that Intel modems weren’t that good. It isn’t Apple’s fault they want to build something better than other market participants are currently providing.