Apple designs iPhones. They manage the fabrication of parts very closely and manage their assembly and QA more closely than most of their competitors (like, big

Apple designs iPhones. They manage the fabrication of parts very closely and manage their assembly and QA more closely than most of their competitors (like, big enough to make demands of Foxconn or cause them to build specialized factories). Then they sell the phones directly to consumers. They are (literally) on the Wikipedia page as an example of a vertically integrated company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_integration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_integration I'm not saying you're wrong... but it doesn't look like you're right.