COOK’S FIVE-YEAR EXPANSION of the Apple empire also hit a wall. Despite Buffett’s vote of confidence and the improved sales of the iPhone 7, the company continued to struggle in China. The iPhone business, which had tripled in size after Cook’s China Mobile deal, gave up some of its gains. Sales plunged 17 percent from their peak as a customer base obsessed with status symbols put off buying the 6s and 7 phones because they looked nearly identical to the iPhone 6 launched two years earlier. The very market that had fueled Apple’s expansion was contributing to its contraction.
