•Apple Inc's financial success is often represented by point values and ratios that impact upon its stock price and market value.•The Apple business model value proposition is the product of both value creation and capture.•Apples financial transformation is precarious because value capture involves the displacement of costs to and margin capture from suppliers.•Apples financial transformation whilst commendable has only brought it back to levels comparable to its peers. The topic of this paper is the Apple Inc business model and how, in a financialized world, the success of this business model is represented by what we term financial ‘point values’. Our argument is that there is a tendency to promote specific point valuation multiples as measures of success, but these values, by their nature, do not reveal the contingent and variable nature of the power relations exercised in and along global supply chains. Firms such as Apple exploit their resources and capabilities to ‘create value’ but also exercise power to recalibrate relationships with suppliers in the value chain to secure ‘value capture’ for financial transformation. Value capture is an active ingredient that can help inform our understanding of the fragility of the Apple business model value proposition and frame a critical argument regarding the precarious nature and sustainability of Apple's substantial profit margins.