According to IDC, Apple’s personal computer shipments declined by 40.5 per cent in the first quarter, the worst drop since the final three months of 2000.

It appears that Apple’s winning formula of charging more for technology which is behind the market has failed and the company has been left with tons of gear that no one will touch with a barge pole.

The Tame Apple Press has done its best to spin Apple’s failure, claiming that everyone is seeing a drop in PC demand. However, even if has to admit that Apple’s fail has been much greater than anyone else.

Among the market leaders, Lenovo Group and Dell Technologies registered drops of more than 30 per cent, while HP was down 24.2 per cent.

The report is a particular blow to Apple but the company had been preparing investors for weaker results in some of its hardware, with a rocky economic backdrop threatening to dampen enthusiasm for Apple’s products.

Apple has had this problem before. The last time it saw such a steep drop in Mac demand, the tech industry grappled with the dot-com bust. Steve Jobs was off his game and pushing an unsuccessful computer known as the Cube (remember that?).

Meanwhile, Apple’s response to the disaster is to bang on about VR and throw more models that could help spur demand. It might just get away with it. Apple share owners have the memory of goldfish. Apple shares only fell 1.9 per cent on the back of the news when it should have fallen much lower.