Any more reliable than webster?
My definitions are typical in the industry from which I work. give it up man.... At this point, you just arguing for the sake of arguing.
Intel (manufacturer of chips) -> Apple (manufacturer of in house products) -> Apple (vendor of the finished product) -> bestbuy (retailer) -> customer.
From customer's point of view, Apple is the vendor. If the customer buys another video card from another vendor (ATI for example), that card is considered third party. Apple is not obligated to support it. If the customer buys an ATI video card FROM APPLE, that card is considered non-third-party and direct from vendor. Apple is obligated to support it. This is their way of doing business which is a double edged sword.
You are so hell bent on winning an argument over semantics that you are missing the single most important thing in my posts. That Apple is very selective of support for products not purchased through Apple (vendor) while Microsoft chooses to allow support for a wide variety of products not purchased through (Microsoft).
Give it up. By your definition 100% of all products made is third party since almost no one creates 100% of the product in-house... which is just plain backwards logic. And no... my clients in the Fortune 500 are not idiots. The dictionary is right and wikipedia (even though not infallible) is accurate. Change dictionary, wikipedia, and prove that my clients are idiots and then you are "right".
In your example intel, the customer's vendor is Apple even though Intel manufactures processors for Apple. Those chips are considered "direct from vendor" since they were purchased through Apple. If you purchased an Intel chip through another vendor outside of Apple, then the chips are considered third-party. You are still confusing vendor and manufacturer... because the idea of thirdparty versus "direct from vendor" has nothing to do with who ultimately manufactured the product.