> I'm under the impression that stuff small and valuable like iPhones are transported by plane

That's not how freight works.

FedEx ships Apple handsets to the U.S. mainly using Boeing 777s [1]

Jan 2015 saw 17 billion Air Freight Kilometers available but with utilisation running at about 46% - most routes only have freight used one way [2]

[1] http://www.macrumors.com/2013/09/11/how-apple-ships-millions...

[2] http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/freight-ana...

I'm no expert on the subject, but the term 'air freight' does exist, as well as many articles discussing the pros and cons of transporting cargo by air vs by sea. Google it.

Are you sure?

When we ordered an iPad from Apple in 2011, it got handed to one of the big delivery companies (FedEx?) in China, then got put on a plane to the US.

'Freight' generally implies the bulk transportation of large quantities of goods. When you said 'small stuff', I didn't realize you meant small quantities of stuff.

iPhones and iPads aren't really great examples in this space, because they're often sold before they even come off the assembly line. Apple chooses air freight for (many of) its products simply because that's the most efficient way to operate its particular supply chain.

Mea culpa, you're right, they do ship mostly using air freight.