I think we need some plan to prove that even though Jobs has us a bit flat footed again we move quick and both match and do stuff better.

Bill Gates, in a 2003 email responding to the launch of the iTunes Music Store

The problem is, in hardware you can’t build a computer that’s twice as good as anyone else’s anymore. Too many people know how to do it. You’re lucky if you can do one that’s one and a third times better or one and a half times better. And then it’s only six months before everybody else catches up. But you can do it in software. As a matter of fact, I think that the leap that we’ve made is at least five years ahead of anybody.