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Much of that growth has come from the iPod mini. Until the middle of last year, Apple had sold fewer than 4m of the original iPods over nearly three years. After the launch of the iPod mini last year — and, earlier this year, the iPod shuffle — it is now selling more than 6m music players a quarter.

But the iPod is only one prong of a three-prong strategy. iTunes, the music store that works seamlessly with the music player, is extending Apple’s dominance into online retailing. iTunes claims an 80% share of the UK’s music-downloading market, and is rolling out in more than 20 countries.

With 10m accounts, it looks as if iTunes will soon be selling 100m songs a month. Having sold its 500 millionth song in July, The Sunday Times estimates that iTunes will pass 1 billion shortly after Christmas.

The third prong is the boost that the iPod, and the tidal wave of goodwill that it has created, is giving to Apple’s Macintosh computer business.

At the Apple Expo show in Paris last week, Jobs said: “A lot of people buying iPods are coming back to see what kind of computers we make. There’s a lot of frustration with the (Microsoft Windows) PC world due to viruses and spyware and a lack of innovation. We are clearly picking up market share.”

In its most recent quarter, Apple sold 35% more Mac computers than it did last year. Tim Cook, head of sales and operations, said that over the past nine months “the Mac grew at two or three times the market”.

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Can Apple sustain this purple patch? There are many who doubt it. George Colony, chief executive of Forrester, a technology-research firm, said: “This is a short-term phenomenon. I think that Apple can lock out the rest of its competitors with hardware for only so long.”

Paul Jackson, Forrester’s principal analyst on Apple in Europe, explained that rivals had always been quick to produce cut-price copies of Apple’s previous innovations, such as the original iMac computer and the iBook laptop.

Jobs is not blind to the threat. “We have world-class competitors who are trying to kill us, companies like Sony,” he said. “We have so many companies copying us. Microsoft is copying us on our operating system. Dell is trying to copy us on our hardware.”

Apple’s response has been to improve and replace the market-leading iPod mini. Before the competition had caught up with the mini, Apple extended its technological lead with the nano. “It’s a very brave move to kill your best-selling product after just a year,” said Jackson.

The nano, weighing 42 grams, has received rave reviews. “To see one is to want one,” said The New York Times. “If you hope to resist, lash your credit card to your wallet like Odysseus to the mast.”

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