Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states.
While offering a range of products, it has avoided its competitors' strategy of trying a variety of screen ratios, something hardware firms making tablets based on Google's Android operating system have been doing.
Though exports make up 25% of its sales, so far it has avoided entanglements abroad.
Although Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Bay Area has had its share of controversy, it has avoided the kind of security lapses that become national news.
Its budget deficit is 11.5%, and it has an unemployment rate above 19% because it has avoided reform of its labor market policies that make it incredibly costly to remove permanent employees.
But it has avoided a formal renunciation of its defense commitment to New Zealand pending the passage of the legislation.
The program has referred to the recent student protests in Iran in its brief news segment, but so far it has avoided commenting on them.
Credit Suisse, its domestic rival, has also had losses, but it has avoided a government bailout and has arranged a recapitalization through other sources.
Court developed, for its own governance in the cases confessedly within its jurisdiction, a series of rules under which it has avoided passing upon a large part of all the constitutional questions pressed upon it for decision.
It has avoided public missteps that have dogged its sibling labs.
Despite the council's reduction of £883,000 in its central government grant, its deputy leader, Labour councillor Peter Wilson, said the income meant it has avoided having to lose services.
