They do and they don't.
They compete with Windows in many regards, and they are constantly trying to lure more switchers over. On that front, they must definitely offer a superior product, and those folks are always worrying over spec this and spec that. Apple has done a wonderful job of leaving specs out of the Ax processor line, and just calling it out by name. RAM? Who knows. Clock speed? Who knows. Cache? Who knows. Bus speed? Who knows. They care—a lot!—but they don't want their customers to care. When it comes to power, instead of speaking in spec-ese, they speak in app-ability. They demonstrate speed by showing results, rather than the specs that lead to results. This is more relatable to the common guy, and it sells a lot of devices. Thus, the way they will compete in Macs going forward will likely mirror what they have done with iOS. Less spec-focused and more results-focused.
For the other camp, the die-hard Mac users like myself and many members of this forum, Apple does not have to compete (at least not in the same way). When shopping for a new computer, PC's don't even come into the discussion. Therefor, there is no "competition". For me, the only competition is, "which iMac am I going to get, and how much am I going to spend?" Since I am waiting for the Apple Silicon variant, the competition (current Intel iMacs) don't have a chance.
