After facing political attacks, Apple realized its retail sales were not its main leverage with Beijing. Its real power was its massive, multi-billion dollar investment in training hundreds of local suppliers. This positioned Apple as the single largest contributor to China's high-end electronics capabilities, a key government priority.

Wozniak's insistence on eight expansion slots for the Apple II, against Jobs's preference for two, created a third-party ecosystem that drove sales. This open architecture's success funded the company, enabling the development of Jobs's later closed-system products.

Despite a profitable affiliate model, Babylist was heavily reliant on a few large retailers. They chose to enter the complex, lower-margin world of direct e-commerce and warehousing primarily to mitigate platform risk and control their own destiny, not for short-term profit.

Eddy Cue explains that selling a single 99¢ song was a money-losing proposition due to credit card fees. Apple's hack was to not close the transaction after each purchase, instead aggregating a user's song buys over a period into one larger charge.

To challenge eBay's monopoly, Alibaba launched Taobao. Facing internal opposition and significant financial risk, Joe Tsai structured it as a secret 50/50 joint venture with SoftBank. This insulated Alibaba from potential failure while allowing the new venture to operate aggressively and independently.

In 2004, Apple considered a credit card whose points could only buy iTunes songs. This was economically brilliant for Apple due to high margins on digital music. However, the rise of streaming services like Spotify would have quickly rendered this reward system obsolete, highlighting the risk of tying loyalty programs to a single, disruptable product category.

Apple wasn't a visionary in offshoring; it was a laggard. Its move to China was driven by the inability to manufacture the radically different iMac, a product designed to save the company. This desperation forced it to abandon its long-held control over manufacturing and partner with Asian suppliers.

Terry Guo of Foxconn pursued a partnership with a struggling Apple, recognizing that learning from Apple's demanding standards was more valuable than short-term profits. He understood Apple's uniqueness better than Apple did, betting that mastering their complexity would make Foxconn capable of serving any client.

To offer custom computer configurations, Apple built its first online store. This direct-to-consumer move was made despite significant internal resistance and fear that existing retail partners like CompUSA would retaliate and stop selling Apple products.