Apple has, for most of its existence, been a distant second choice, because IBM and Microsoft captured the enterprise, which trickled down into consumer buying habits.

It survived, then thrived, by making its products so appealing that customers would buy them anyway.

So, effectively, both.

Apple is not a PE firm. They are a public consumer goods company with a ton of different business lines. Their duty is shareholder value and making good products that sell is one way to do that.

Value extraction is a short term play. It’s usable by most companies in a pinch, but normally only happens before their death or slow decay into zombie-dom. At least, that’s what my anecdata tells me.