Has Apple any competitors ? Is there any company even close ?

We may say that Apple has positioned itself very specifically, and it seems like it is impossible for other brands to compete with.

Apple produces computers, telephones, tablets, music players, operating systems, television set-top boxes, lifestyle and productivity software, professional media software, wireless routers, and  finally Apple has an “app store” where you can buy movies, music and applications.

Today Apple is one of the leaders in the PC and smartphone markets. Due to the wide range of proposed products and services (providing content and applications for users)  it is really difficult for a company to compete with Apple. The competition is not coming from the “traditional” PC players, but from Amazon, Google, Real Networks, Sony and Hewlett Packard, because of their strong investment in content.

Amazon is the content competitor: it proposes digital music, films, TV shows, and books, but only for PCs.  

Google with Android OS and applications for smartphones, can become a real threat for Apple leadership.  

Microsoft with Windows OS is the main operating system competitor for Apple, but if not the price advantage, customers would be likely to chose Mac operations systems with an easy, commerce-based solution to content access.

Sony directly challenges Apple. Sony proposes movies, music, e-books, consoles, mobile games as well as advanced smartphones and PCs. 

Concerning iPhone hardware competitors, Nokia, HTC, LG and Samsung are strong but they  depend on someone else for the software. So all in all competition is weak taking in consideration the iPhone as a whole: hardware plus software.

Usually the competition in the technology market is very intense. Apple works very hard on R&D and marketing to keep the popularity of iPod, iPad, iPhone and Apple Mac. Apple’s success lets us even think that the company has No Real competitors. That no company has the same positioning, advantages and range of product as Apple.

Do you think Apple has no competitors? If yes, how long will it last?