One difference is that Canon decided to design and manufacture their own sensors (modulo some point-n-shoot cameras where they use 3rd party sensors). This has

One difference is that Canon decided to design and manufacture their own sensors (modulo some point-n-shoot cameras where they use 3rd party sensors). This has been to their disadvantage sometimes, but right now it's a win because they can innovate quicker and invent proprietary features like dual-pixel autofocus. It was DPAF that put them squarely ahead of Nikon a few years ago. Nikon buys their sensors from Sony so they can never do this.