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Yeah - Airbus bit the big one on their idiotic decision to pour about $16 billion into a plane they will be lucky to sell 500 of. Airbus building the modern-day version of the Concorde is akin to Howard Dean being chair of the DNC - the opposition could not have thought up anything better if they had tried. :)

Back in the 90s Boeing was going to build a VLA ( very large aircraft ) called the 747-500X - 747-600X.
The 747-600X would have been almost the same size as the A-380 but without the full 2 nd deck.
Boeing would have designed a new wing for it, with less sweptback angle, same fuselage diameter, but longer fuselage.
Boeing tried to see if airlines were interested, but, none were interested in the 747-500X-747-600X.
We can only guess caused Airbus to commit themselves by saying that they were going to build the 747-X planes, and the Sonic Cruiser.
Now that Airbus is fully committed with the Airbus A-380, Boeing comes out with the 787 , and the new 747-8I-8F, and has the 777 as a hot seller, and in a few years Boeing might develop a replacement of the 737.
Some may see that as a strategy, having the competition to commit themselves on a project, invest a huge amount of money and resources, and then, come out with a product that does not hurt your business, and have old standbys that you can improve on.
I am sure Boeing was sincere when they wanted to build the 747-500X-747-600X , but Airlines were just not interested, but, that also kept Airbus off balance.