In the immortal words of Tuco (from The Good, The Bad, and tThe Ugly):
"If you're going to shoot somebody, Shoot! Don't talk!"
bump
Yes, but Tuco never met Gates. Gates has a history of, with a few words, destroying entire software genres just because Microsoft MIGHT compete in them. Software companies have had a devil of a time raising financing because investors are always scared that Microsoft might come in and destroy any market potential they may have.
In this instance, Apple is already successful. However you'd better believe that threats from Microsoft do affect their market cap in the stock market.