I would bet that 90 day payment was a one off. You notice NO ONE quoted in the article was willing to have their name used so it might have been a friend of a friend story. The suppliers who talked gave details about turning down a $1 Billion pre-payment!

I disagree for 2 reasons. First, Apple is notorious with NDAs. Second, many large retailers are quite willing to cancel contracts with any supplier that gets uppity enough to complain in public. Walmart is so notorious for cancelling suppliers that most Walmart suppliers will refuse to allow any company representative speak on the record.

Um, no that's not how it goes.

Paying late in manufacturing is all over the place, 30 days is considered acceptable, 60 the absolute limit, but paying 90 days late is just something Apple can get away with because of it's size and "occasional ruthlessness".

It's not paying 90 days 'late'. It's completely standard in manufacturing for payments to be agreed as due 30, 60 or 90 days after delivery. 90 days fairly long, but not particularly unusual.

It's also not unusual for companies to pay later than the agreed dates, but no-one has said Apple's doing that.