FWIW I think Apple previously used MarkMonitor. In fact that's currently mentioned on Wiki. However, now Apple.com is controlled by something named "Corporation Service Company".
I think the idea behind these services is, they're not just a registrar. Broadly speaking, their business is "know your customer". They're boutiques. They protect large companies against the vagaries of DNS hacks, expired domain registrations, typosquatting, etc.
E.g. a (long) while ago Microsoft failed to renew hotmail.co.uk, just like they previously forgot to renew passport.com. But today, Microsoft can't forget to renew microsoft.com, because that's now MarkMonitor's job. Similarly, renewing passport.com is now the job of (according to whois '=passport.com'):
Corporation Service Company(c) (CSC)
The Trusted Partner
of More than 50% of the 100 Best Global Brands.
The bad part is if CSC screws up, quite a few companies could be in a world of hurt.
I think the idea behind these services is, they're not just a registrar. Broadly speaking, their business is "know your customer". They're boutiques. They protect large companies against the vagaries of DNS hacks, expired domain registrations, typosquatting, etc.
E.g. a (long) while ago Microsoft failed to renew hotmail.co.uk, just like they previously forgot to renew passport.com. But today, Microsoft can't forget to renew microsoft.com, because that's now MarkMonitor's job. Similarly, renewing passport.com is now the job of (according to whois '=passport.com'):
The bad part is if CSC screws up, quite a few companies could be in a world of hurt.