>Apple could sell the chips for commodity prices and make a bit of profit for itself
Never gonna happen. You can't just sell the chips, you also need to provide a TON of support to your customers and integrators and in the semiconductor business that's way too much of a hassle for Apple to be worth it. They have much bigger fish to fry.
From what I hear about Qualcomm, theres enough companies that would be willing to jump through the hoops to avoid them, as Apple themselves did Intel.
They could always set up a joint venture, Apple brings the IP. The partner does the day to day stuff. It doesn't make a lot of sense to be sitting on top of IP and R&D that could be amortised over a much larger number of units.
Never gonna happen. You can't just sell the chips, you also need to provide a TON of support to your customers and integrators and in the semiconductor business that's way too much of a hassle for Apple to be worth it. They have much bigger fish to fry.