8086 won in the end, but 8088 dominated the early 80s
In the crazy time of the late 70’s and early 80’s computers were expensive, much more expensive than today. Apple was making inroads, as was Commodore while IBM was a mainframe company with some interesting plans. They wanted to make an affordable workstation and to that end they realized that building an 8-bit version of their 8086 processor could save them a huge amount of money. The 8088 was 16-bit internally and compatible with 8-bit parts externally. Those parts were significantly more affordable and reliable than the 16-bit parts, which helped keep costs down, adding extra generic registers gave flexibility, and the 8087 math coprocessor was a compatible, albeit expensive, upgrade option.
This is a very small explanation of the market at the time, as well as just after everything has changed for IBM and for the market.
Ars Technica recently discovered a new product on AliExpress that harkens back to that era, the Book 8088, an absolutely bizarre $200 imported system that uses a 1984 processor, custom motherboard design, and a bunch of parts strung together to approximate the specs of the original 1981 IBM 5150 PC. If you missed the days of the IBM compatible PC or want to relive them, check out that link for a look at a bizarre and curious machine.
If you want to torture yourself, the Book 8088 is apparently just over $200.
