But perhaps in the clearest sign that Apple has emerged as an industry superpower, government regulators are beginning to scrutinize its every move.
By James Surowiecki I n the nineteen-nineties, a tin-pot West Coast company turned itself, almost overnight, into an industry superpower, eclipsing incumbents and increasing its sales by two thousand per cent in four years.
Britain's elite private schools are service-industry superpowers.
That sort of thing sits ill with India's vision of itself as a knowledge-industry superpower, which expects cable to deliver much of the data and entertainment needed to justify that ambition.
A major breakthrough came in October 2003, when the industry's two superpowers, Microsoft and IBM, got up on a stage together and stated what protocols they intend to use.
Chinese telecoms company Huawei bills itself as the future face of Chinese industry: a hi-tech superpower employing tens of thousands of engineers rather than just poorly paid factory workers.
But for two superpowers in the beverage industry, the theme was war.
When it comes to high-flying superpowers of the tech industry, it doesn't get much bigger than Sun Microsystems back in its heyday, while it was under the leadership of co-founder and former CEO Scott McNealy.
Iran is an energy superpower and the Petroleum industry in Iran plays an important part in it.
In a baroque palace near the Barcelona seafront, hundreds gathered to sip wine, eat tapas - and watch what could be the next superpower of the mobile phone industry unveil its latest product.
