I didn't say that the fabrication process doesn't influence the characteristics of the final chip, I was stating that the design itself takes the bigger role of the chip's optimization and that from the end user's point of view, it doesn't matter if the A9 is fabricated in TSMC or in Samsung's fabs.

Actually, if they are dual sourcing the same chip from a 14nm process and from a 16nm process as well, it's very likely that they had to use different analog designs, so the 14nm chip probably has advantages that the 16nm chip has and vice-versa.

It's pointless for the end user to nitpick differences of the same chip in 2 equivalent processes when the software is going to mask everything out.

And I'm not saying this because I read it in the media, I affirm this from experience in the semiconductor industry.