Could you provide an example outside of apple products, to make your distinction clearer? With the examples given, the difference is colored by my feelings about the companies involved.
But far from being a "me too" or a ripoff, Sony took the core concept and advanced it further. They put an even larger sensor into the machine without increasing the bulk, engineered a ground-breaking new viewfinder (generations ahead of anything Panasonic and Olympus had), and put focus into the camera's software that is unprecedented - focus peaking, touch-to-focus, etc.
Sony looked at a disruptive entry in the market, distilled it down to its core, and took it further than the incumbents. That is IMHO the difference between "copying" and "stealing".
An important part of a design is the tradeoffs/decisions that went into it, and how it adapts in the face of new circumstances. Copying the final result is a shadow of copying the thinking process.