We often hear that Apple “plays the game” better than Sony, HP, Dell, etc – that’s not quite right. Apple is playing an entirely different game. What’s most amazing about this? Nobody else seems to want to play with them, they just keep playing the “other” game, and poorly.
via stagetwo.com
The best competitive strategy is to ignore the competition and focus on the customer. The competitive offers are typically a fairly low bar so it's easy to be superior.