In marketing the product this way, the company has thrown down the gauntlet [ˈɡɔntlət] to its top two competitors.

gauntlet
noun [ˈɡɔntlət]
Gauntlet was first used in English to refer to the reinforced glove worn with a suit of armor in the Middle Ages. Gauntlet later came to refer to any long, heavy glove worn to protect the hand, as well as to an open challenge to an argument, fight, competition, etc., usually in the common phrase “throw down the gauntlet.”

from the Middle French word gantelet, the diminutive of gant, meaning “glove”

English