How I see it, Airbus has a realy good timing with the A350.
I mean, most of the developing for the A380 is now finished. Freeing up the whole desingteam for the A350 and making it also possible to use any new technology from the A380 for the A350.
The other big question is, will Boeing really be able to finish its 7E7 in 2008. Their is a lot of new and untried technology going into the 7E7.
It could be very much likely, that they could have over done themself with an unrealistic roll out date.