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Just caught something interesting in Apple's latest earnings that's worth unpacking. The company just hit a record 2.5 billion active devices across its ecosystem. That's a staggering number when you think about it—it basically means Apple has a direct line to a quarter of the world's population through hardware alone. And that installed base is the real moat here.
What caught my attention is how this translates to their services business. Services revenue hit 30 billion, up 14% year-over-year. This is the beautiful part of their model—once you own an Apple device, the ecosystem makes it sticky. You're not just buying hardware anymore; you're buying into an interconnected web of subscriptions and services. That's what keeps people locked in.
So here's where it gets interesting. Apple sits in this trillion-dollar market cap territory, yet the company is still printing money from both hardware and software. The blend of physical products and digital services is hard to replicate. Even with all the noise about AI, Apple's competitive moat remains intact. The switching costs alone keep people from jumping ship.
But here's the thing that's making me pause. Warren Buffett has been quietly selling Apple shares over the past year and a half. We're talking about Berkshire Hathaway going from over 900 million shares down to 238 million. That's a massive reduction. And I don't think it's random. Buffett doesn't usually trim positions unless he thinks valuation has gotten out of hand. Right now, Apple trades at a PE of 34.1. That's not cheap by any measure.
When one of the greatest investors of all time starts taking chips off the table, it's a signal worth paying attention to. Sure, Apple's business is phenomenal—the 2.5 billion device base proves that. But is it phenomenal enough to justify current valuations? That's the question keeping me up at night.
The bull case is crystal clear: dominant ecosystem, growing services revenue, and a distribution advantage that's nearly impossible to replicate. The bear case is equally simple: valuation is stretched, and even Buffett seems to think so. This is one of those situations where both sides of the argument have legitimate weight.