Warren Buffett has traded his flip phone for an iPhone, and says Apple is probably the best business I know in the world

CNN

At 89 years old, Warren Buffett has finally switched to an Apple iPhone. 

“My flip phone is permanently gone,” he told CNBC’s Becky Quick in a Monday television interview. He added that he’d been gifted several iPhones over the years, including some from Apple CEO Tim Cook. 

At the end of the year, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway held a 5.7% stake in Apple stock worth roughly $72 billion according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings and the company’s annual shareholder letter, released Saturday. The company has been buying Apple shares since May 2016. 

“It’s probably the best business I know in the world,” Buffett said, adding that he doesn’t think of it as a stock but as Berkshire Hathaway’s third business behind wholly owned subsidiaries Geico Auto Insurance and BNSF, a railroad company. 

Buffet views Apple favorably because of the smartphone, which he called an “incredibly useful product to people that grows more useful” as it becomes more popular. He also views Apple not as a technology company, he said, but as a consumer product company that uses technology. 

“The smartphone is part of hundreds and hundreds of millions of people’s lives,” he said, adding that he “should’ve appreciated it earlier.” 

An Apple product may also play a key role in the upcoming Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, in May, Buffett said.

While the video for the meeting hasn’t been made yet, Buffett said it will “probably show me crushing with my foot my old flip phone while cozying up to the new smartphone,” he said. 

Apple stock has gained as much as 6% year-to-date through Friday’s close.

Markets Insider