&#62; <i>"but it IS their job to criticize their competitors"</i><p>I disagree - both Google and Apple in the past have been very polite about their competitors' products. MS (particularly Ballmer) has a long and colorful track record of badmouthing competitors, only to have to eat their words later. Some of what MS has done for competing platforms/products has really bordered on smear campaigning, which IMHO is something that is <i>far</i> from standard procedure in our industry.