It's all (very) relative
I think what you mean is that, while Apple and Microsoft have not improved their ethics or their business practices, their wickedness is dwarfed by that of Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter and the other johnny-come-latelies.
But Apple and Microsoft laid the foundations: if the giants of today have excelled in cynical wickedness, it is only because they stood on the shoulders of ethical pygmies.