In a sense Europe isn't really behind, there is lots of know how, research and small-ish companies in the software and hardware space. There is no Google or Ap

In a sense Europe isn't really behind, there is lots of know how, research and small-ish companies in the software and hardware space. There is no Google or Apple or Microsoft though, and accordingly a lot of the network effects and institutional knowledge is lacking. I do very much concur that there is no European competition for US IT supremacy on the horizon any time in the next decades. China is a different story...