For American viewers, it was as though Princess Di and Michael Jackson had died on the same night. Network specials from ABC, NBC and CBS within 30 minutes of a death announced; Fox, Bloomberg and CNN clearing their schedules right through the evening.

"I learned about Steve Jobs's death on my iPhone and I'm talking to you using a Macintosh computer," said Lou Dobbs. Has any business wizard in the history of the world had such a send-off? Hi-tech royalty, pop-star glamour.

And only a few hours before, his successor, Tim Cook, had been up on stage alone, explaining why the iPhone 4S wasn't the iPhone 5 as Apple's share price drooped ever lower. The problem with pop-star charisma is that it can go pop. The trouble with icons is that they're an impossible act to follow.