So what happened? One thing that can be blamed for declining iPad sales is the rise of the “phablet” – bigger smartphones with bigger screens that fulfil many of the functions of the tablet itself like reading ebooks and watching videos. Apple itself has begun making supersized iPhones with screens approaching tablet territory, and Tim Cook admitted last year that this had begun to cannibalise iPad sales.

At the same time, there has been little reason for current iPad owners to upgrade. While the iPhone has consistently added new features and improvements, leading millions to buy a new one every two years like clockwork, the main changes to its bigger cousin in recent years have been marginal speed improvements and cosmetic tweaks.

Many tablet owners tend to use them only for browsing videos and photos and for light internet use, and find older models are perfectly capable, while iPads have not tended to have the raw power and breadth of applications that PCs still enjoy.

Apple is now trying to change that. Last year, it unveiled a new iPad with a detachable keyboard, bigger screen and beefed up credentials at targeted squarely at the PC power user. It represented the biggest change to the device in three years. In November, Cook told this newspaper that the iPad Pro would be “a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people”. “They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phones,” he said. “Why would you buy a PC anymore?”