Unsafe was cashing in 100% of their market credibility to drop an uncompetitive keyboard-less featurephone into the 2007 market. Unsafe was Retina. Unsafe was the iPhone 4 design. Unsafe was Siri. Unsafe was the sealed filesystem. Unsafe was unsubsidized sales.
Of all of their dozens of unsafe decisions, I think only two burnt them: unsubsidized sales and Antennagate. And they course corrected on both of them as soon as feasible.
But here we are 6 product cycles later and they've successfully gotten to where they wanted to be: The Unquestioned Best. It's the safe choice. It's the sure thing. It's the one everything else is compared to. It's the standard bearer.
And seriously? I can't think of what the next Unsafe decision is. Is it in payments? Is it in docking? Is it in Zigbee/NFC? Is it in broad identity management? Developing markets?
Apple is in a position where they don't -have- to make Unsafe decisions anymore, and that roaring sound you hear is tens of billions of dollars rushing their way. They survived the gauntlet. Now it's time for them to feast.
Pardon my metaphor soup.