Not strange at all. There is on the surface a level of cooperation, but a fierce rivalry lurks not far below...
Remember when Erdas was the image processing software of choice for esri users? Then it was bought into the Hexagon group along with ER Mapper, Microstation etc etc. Out went Erdas, in came PCI (Envi).
We still have a good lot of cooperation here with the local Leica agents because their survey kit and field devices are just better than most.
As regards the original subject I would say....
Don't worry about the opposition. Just make sure that what you say about the features of collector are actually true ie, go out and use it with real, live data. Don't just believe the sales talk.