Microsoft is always quick to point the rapid rate of improvement and cost in the computer industry, and in Microsoft products. The consumer reaps the benefits of constant competition and innovation. Every year, you can buy faster computers for less money, and software with more and more features. Microsoft contends that their practices are beneficial to consumers, who get a wide variety of products at ever-falling prices. There are many charming analogies that can be drawn. In his opening remarks to the Senate, Bill Gates proclaimed "The statistics show that the cost of computing has decreased ten million fold since 1971. That's the equivalent of getting a Boeing 747 for the price of a pizza."[*] (Of course, what this fails to address is the sacrifices in quality that often come with such ruthless progress. Few would choose to fly on planes that were as reliable as most commercial software.)

A more concrete example can be seen in the so-called "browser wars." Because of Microsoft and Netscape's fierce battle to attract more users to their respective World Wide Web Browsers, consumers have been rewarded. The products were developed extremely rapidly, even for software, with new features adopted at every turn. At this time, both are available on almost every possible platform and offered free to anyone who cares to download them.

Refer to Microsoft's white paper, Section B: "The Stellar Performance of the Software Industry"[*] for more documentation of the high rate of improvement in computers.