Apple understands exactly how their are advertising and to whom. They are not competing "against" any company but rather "to" their customers. Don't you see the difference in those two statements? The competition is obsessed with beating the competition. . . Apple is not. Apple is obsessed with pleasing the customer.
You, like most anti-Apple complainers, will latch onto anything to argue. You cannot comprehend why Apple is different, and that difference is why Apple is where it is today. . . not because of nefarious activities, or the delusional hyper-loyalty of a crazed fan base.
Apple is competing with every company that sells something for the money in your pocket. Nuancing "competing" to make it something unrecognizable by most people, and then complaining about being misunderstood is simply fabricating an argument.