Honestly asking, not trying to throw punches; what are they ahead with? From everything I've seen/read/heard it's all software, and the hardware itself has stagnated or is behind by a few months/years of other vendors.
Their hardware/software integration results in browser performance (safari) that is years ahead of chrome/android on ARM hardware.
The benchmarks are out there.
Again, the hardware/software integration allows them to reach performance metrics faster than the others. This goes for their image processors and also their general CPUs for browsing.
In fact, their iPads are now faster than some of their Intel laptops.
Cameras? Google is on par if not better with the Pixel. Screens? Samsung.
The only area where I could conceivably say Apple is destroying the competition is the A11 chip.
As an overall package though, I'd say the other major players (Samsung, Google) are on par with Apple for phones.