They may not be great at 2-way cloud sync, but they know how to use a CDN (iTunes, App Store, etc)
In those first years, Jobs also promoted Akamai on stage at keynotes and Apple wrote glowing press releases about how well the Akamai network held up streaming Apple’s keynote addresses. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2000/07/24Apple-and-Akamai-D...