The only way is down for Tim Cook and record-breaking Apple

Tim Cook, the Apple chief executive, said that they would start shipping the Apple Watch starting April. David Paul Morris / Bloomberg

Apple on Tuesday said its fiscal first quarter net income rose 38 per cent to $18 billion - the largest quarterly profit ever reported by a US company.
Sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, grew 46 per cent to 74.5 million units in the period, topping analysts' average estimate of 64.9 million.
Sales were particularly robust in China, where revenue rose 70 per cent and where Apple will open 25 new stores in the country within two years. In the Americas, sales rose 23 per cent, while revenue from Europe increased 20 per cent.
The Cupertino, California-based company forecast the strong performance would continue, projecting revenue would rise by at least 14 per cent in the March quarter. Chief executive Tim Cook also said Apple would ship the Apple Watch - its first new gadget category since debuting the iPad in 2010 - starting in April.
But this has to represent some kind of watershed moment - like Aol's $164bn takeover of Time Warner in 2001 or Nokia's global smartphone market share peaking at 50 per cent in the first quarter of 2007 shortly after Steve Job's revealed the first iPhone. Whenever a company hits the heights there is nowhere else to go but down - particularly in the cut throat technology sector.
Nokia sold its handset division to Microsoft in 2013 after years of dwindling share and Jeff Bewkes, the current chairman and chief executive of Time Warner, has called the merger with AOL "the biggest mistake in corporate history".
This record profit from Apple may not signify an immediate reversal of fortunes but there are some clouds already on the horizon including the stronger dollar's impact on earnings outside the US - Apple's peers are already feeling the pinch.
Also the Chinese market is gaining in importance for Apple. In the final three months of last year the company shipped the most smartphones into the country ahead of local firms Xiaomi and Huawei and Korean rival Samsung. But as we have seen with the latter dominance in such a competitive and unique economy can be short-lived. Samsung was at one point last year the market leader before it began its slide.
Its results are expected on Thursday and may offer some insight into the future for Apple's shareholders.
* with Bloomberg
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