Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett says he lacks the iPhone skills of a two-year-old despite a personal tutorial from Apple CEO Tim Cook. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is the largest stakeholder in Apple. After first investing in Apple in 2016, Berkshire Hathaway’s position in Apple was worth $73.7 billion as of Q4 2019, which is more than double the cost of the investment.
Max Zahn with Andy Serwer for Yahoo Finance:
“I went out to California, and Tim Cook very patiently spent hours trying to move me up to the level of the average two-year-old,” Buffett told Yahoo Finance’s editor-in-chief Andy Serwer in an exclusive interview on March 10 in Omaha, Nebraska. “And didn’t quite make it.”
But Buffett doesn’t hold it against Cook or his top-selling smartphone. “We had a lot of fun. He is a terrific guy,” Buffett said. “Unbelievable product.”
Buffett said he never uses apps, and even sometimes struggles to make phone calls on the device. “Yesterday, I was someplace,” he said. “Somehow I was having a little trouble just getting into — but this is only me, any two-year-old could do this — but I was having a little trouble getting to the part where I actually phone somebody.”
Buffett did not bring his iPhone to the interview with Serwer. “I would be afraid it would ring, and I wouldn’t know what to do with it,” Buffett says.
MacDailyNews Take: You know, we have grandparents who come from a mechanical age, like Buffett, and they are much more accustomed to operating physical buttons, switches, and levers to get things done. To them, the Multi-Touch display – the whole “slab of glass” thing – seems to be just foreign enough to erect a mental block. Buffet, of course, doesn’t need to know how to “work” an iPhone. He’ll be just fine.
On the other hand, we also have grandparents who’ve adapted from a mechanical to a digital age very, very nicely. It’s just a weird thing; some get it and some never do. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks except when you can; it depends on the dog.
As most of us know all too well, it can also be a bit frustrating when trying to teach someone who just doesn’t get it, especially for hours, so we commiserate with Tim!