What development model (or paradigm) does Apple use?

I started programming the Mac circa 1985, during the Toolbox days, but
have been away from Apple for a while -almost a couple decades, to be
precise.

I stayed away from client/GUI programming, cir***scribing myself to
the server and embedded areas. One of the main reason was that GUI
pretty much implied Windows. The situation has changed a lot, however,
with the entrance of Java for instance, one doesn't necessarily have
to become a Microserf anymore.

The one MS technology that caught my attention was the OLE/COM
disciplines, which arguably spearheaded component programming, led by
Microsoft:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component-based_software_engineering

On this side of the fence (the side which is for interoperability and
open standards) we haven't been very successful at standardizing
programming methodologies that can rival OLE and [M]COM, I am afraid
to recognize.

We have UNO (introduced by the OOo folks), a contender with great
potential:

  http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Uno

Now the question: since Unix/Linux hasn't led the way (in standards,
interoperable programming methodologies for clients), how about Apple?
They are easily the leaders on GUI programming.

What does the 4th. most valuable technology company use and recommend?
After all, they are not stuck with SmallTalk, are they? They are
probably forced to sup****t MS COM for the Mac-Office suite, I realize
that. How short is Microsoft's leash on Apple?

-Ramon