First, about two week after announced Xerocon, its first conference in this country, Intuit announced a press and analyst briefing on the same two days next week. My description of the message was "Welcome to the big leagues, kid." And it is saying CEO Brad Smith will give an hour of his time to the event, which is a significant investment for someone in his position. Moreover, last week Smith said the company will launch products for what he termed the pre-accounting market. That translates as the market that Xero is targeting, companies for which accounting software is too robust. Of course, this is a strike at more than Xero, although Xero is the immediate target. There's FreshBooks, Kashoo, Sage One, Exact Online and others in this low-end arena. There was some discussion at the Midwest Business and Accounting Show about how much money can be made off these small-fry clients. But earlier, Xero CEO Rod Drury was in tolerant spirit for Intuit's counter-programming. "It's good sport," he commented in an email.