I'm not 100% sure of this, but I'm not sure the RDRAM fiasco was of Intel's making. Rambus began legal action against SDRAM in 2000 and it looked like they may have been entitled to stop future SDRAM-based products until the case was heard. Intel produced RDRAM chipsets due to a lack of legal choice. I suspect SiS/VIA's timing was down to the Rambus's legal position looking less certain, but after Intel had already committed to RDRAM for the initial P4 chipsets to match it's P4 release dates.
WiMAX would be another example of Intel trying to move the market in a particular direction - it was slated as being the only wireless connectivity you would need with Intel controlling the specs and pushing it as a standard option in laptop's. Unfortunately for the telco's/other comms providers that went with WiMAX, it wasn't the all singing, all dancing wireless protocol they were seeking...
Optane maybe a more current example - all of the demonstrations I have seen for enterprise level Optane suggest that it is a very niche product, with many of it's performance claims based on deployment scenarios that aren't used in real life. i.e. use Optane to speed up your large databases rather than spending the same money on either RAM or flash when the cost of Optane >> RAM/flash.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
