Cede the field

In some smokestack industries—steel, machine tools and especially cars—the choice was to raise productivity and quality a lot or cede the field to the competition, as American companies did in consumer electronics.

State Senator McClintock appeared on CNN's Inside Politics on Tuesday and told me he had no intention of following Ueberroth's lead and ceding the field to Schwarzenegger: "I'm in this race right to the finish line."

And what will happen to Windows Phone? […] One can't imagine that Ballmer will call it a day and cede the field to Google and Apple.