This problem is compounded by the industry's failure to compete with Microsoft. No new categories have emerged because of the fear that Microsoft will copy them and put them out of business. This problem will worsen now that Microsoft appears to have the go-ahead to continue practicing business the way it has. That's one extreme. The other extreme is that new companies are being developed for the sole purpose of being sold to Microsoft or some other company.
Few companies think they can make it alone anymore.
The fact that software can't catch up with hardware has created a vacuum that has slowed the chip makers' frenetic pace. Though Moore's Law can't be stopped, consumer interest in high-speed computing will wane if the software business doesn't perk up. Some feel that voice recognition will be the ticket and that 500-MHz is the magic number for voice to work. From what I can tell, voice will not work well enough to become a killer application within the next ten years. OCR, which is an easier technology, is not at 100 percent reliability yet.