When Steve Jobs took the stage to present one of the most important products in his company's history, he proceeded to grab headlines around the world with details of a smart phone everyone had expected, but no one else had been able to imagine.

Less than two days earlier, Bill Gates took the stage at the Consumer Electronics Show. His mission was similar to that of Mr. Jobs: get the world excited about technology and his company's most important product. He gave a flat, tired performance, even as he showed off features of the Vista operating system, a product that by his own description will be the most used piece of software on the planet.