Your real competitors aren't the ones selling the same product. Ice cream competes with smoothies, snow cones, and wine. An iPad competes with a laptop or pencil and paper. Competition is defined by what outcome the customer actually wants, not by product category.
Chapters
Sometimes it's easy to name your competitors, but many times it's a lot harder than you may think. Supposing you're selling ice cream. You don't just compete with other ice cream sellers. You compete with every business providing a similar result for the customer. At the end of a long hot day, customers may want an ice cream, but they may prefer a smoothie, or a snow cone, or even a chilled glass of Chardonnay. If your competitor has feature X, it doesn't necessarily follow that that feature is prioritized or valued by its customers. It's often not a like-for-like comparison. I could use an iPad to write down my ideas, but I could also use a laptop or even pencil and paper. Now you'd think those three options are in very different categories and not in direct competition with each other, but depending on the context, they may well be.