Nothing wrong with being fabless. Plus Apple could switch to inferior silicon and probably convince its userbase that they are the creme de la creme.

> Nothing wrong with being fabless.

Sure, if you're able to buy all the required production slots, as Apple has been doing in the past.

However, with new market pressure from AI this might not be possible in the future ...

What company has the money to outbid Apple for production slots?

See C1 for an example.