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Apple definitely was not their first customer, not by a long shot. They might have been an early large customer, but ARM were just fine before Apple.

The demand for efficient chips wasn't created by Apple, they just happen to be among the best at making them just now.
ARM didn’t exist before Apple. :) There was a company called Acorn Computers earlier, but ARM was founded as a company in November 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. And, in 1993, ARM’s tech was first released in the Apple Newton.

Acorn Computers wouldn’t have continued to exist if it wasn’t for Apple’s funding.
 
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