Buffett’s announcement comes just days after Apple reported quarterly
sales and profit that
topped analyst estimates on surging services as revenue rose at the
fastest pace in more than two years.
The results helped end a
recent swoon in Apple shares amid concern its flagship iPhone X model
was struggling to win consumers.
“It is an unbelievable company,” Buffett said, according to CNBC. “If
you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second
most profitable company in the United States.”
Berkshire Hathaway is holding its annual meeting this week in Omaha, Nebraska.
While Apple still gets more than 60% of its revenue from
iPhones, services are playing an increasingly important role as growth
in the overall smartphone market slows.
Chief Executive Officer
Tim Cook sells a growing array of services through a base of more than
1.3 billion Apple devices, including music, cloud storage, movies and
apps. Revenue from services surged 31% to a record $9.2bn
in the most recent quarter.
An Apple Music subscription costs $10 per month (unless they’re on a
family plan), and the number of paying users recently hit 40 million.
The middle tier for iCloud storage costs $2.99 a month.
The company now
has 270 million paid subscribers across applications and its own
services, up by 100 million from the same period a year ago.
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