The last time Apple suffered a fall in sales was more than a decade ago. At the time, the iPod still looked like an overpriced and unnecessary addition to an unpromising MP3 player market. Steve Jobs had yet to unveil iTunes or the deal with the music industry that was to propel his gadget dreams.

So how important is it that Jobs’ successors have just come within a whisker of repeating that sales decline? Apple eked out revenue growth of less than 1 per cent in its latest quarter, a performance that officially brings an end to the years of breakneck growth.

For a sense of the doldrums into which the world’s most creative consumer technology company is in danger of falling, you only have to look at the foot traffic in its stores. In the past quarter, 1,000 fewer people walked through the average Apple retail establishment each week compared with a year before. And those who did show up spent less.