Samsung and LG both introduce their annual flagship smartphone so early in the year. Doesn't it give Apple plenty of time to counter them spec wise if any? Just curious, if you're Apple competitor, what's the pros and cons of launching your flagship before and after Apple's launch?
Plus, Apple buys or has bought chips and screens from Samsung.
On the flip side, getting your flagship out months and months before Apple means hundreds of thousands or millions of people walking around with the "latest and greatest" which might just eclipse the last gen iPhone.
Still, Apple doesn't compete on specs. They happily put less megapixels (with better quality) or a lower clock speed (with better chip design and operating system efficiency), and have almost always had much smaller batteries.