There's a difference between over-paying suppliers and being literally the best in the world at squeezing suppliers, which Apple is IMO. You can argue (and I w

There's a difference between over-paying suppliers and being literally the best in the world at squeezing suppliers, which Apple is IMO. You can argue (and I will argue) that Apple's skill at squeezing their suppliers while still maintaining reliable supply chains is a huge part of why they're the biggest company in the world (and also why Tim Cook and not Scott Forstall or Jony Ive succeeded Jobs). That squeezing has real human costs, which Apple is insulated from. They've outsourced the majority of their labor (and related liability) to a global cadre of high-volume, low margin suppliers, while capturing most of the value created by that labor by owning the Apple brand and maintaining tight control of information, resulting in an asymmetric risk/reward profile for Apple inc.