SAN FRANCISCO – Apple is bracing for its first sales decline in 13 years, despite selling a record 74.8 million iPhones in the final three months of 2015.

The giant tech company says revenue could fall at least 8.6 percent during the January-March quarter, compared with a year earlier. Analysts say the latest iPhone models are selling reasonably well, but they’re not providing the boost Apple needs to match the massive sales growth it enjoyed last year.

The company inched past its previous record, established when it sold 74.5 million iPhones in the holiday quarter of 2014. But Tuesday’s forecast implies Apple doesn’t expect to match the 61 million iPhones sold in last year’s January-March quarter.

Apple’s stock has been in a slump for months, as investors worry that the company won’t be able to duplicate last year’s growth in sales, which were in the double-digit percentages. In an interview, Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri said a strong dollar helped reduce revenue, as sales made with foreign currencies abroad convert into fewer dollars. He also said the company isn’t concerned about what he characterized as a short-term slowing of growth, because it has a large base of customers who can be relied on to buy new devices and pay for other services.

“We think we’re in the strongest position we’ve ever been,” Maestri told The Associated Press, adding that the company estimates 1 billion Apple devices – including iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches and Mac computers – are now in active use.

The iPhone, however, is Apple’s biggest-selling product, contributing nearly two-thirds of its revenue and a similar share of profit. Despite the introduction of new models, analysts say global demand for new smartphones isn’t growing as fast as it has in recent years. Apple is also confronting an economic downturn in China, one of its biggest markets.

The giant tech company is in no financial danger. It earned $18.4 billion in profit for the October-December quarter, up 1.8 percent from a year earlier. It had $75.9 billion in revenue, an increase of 1.7 percent. Earnings amounted to $3.28 a share, which beat the $3.23 average forecast among analysts surveyed by FactSet. Revenue fell short of analysts’ estimates, which averaged $76.7 billion.

No one expects Apple to match those results in the current, January-March quarter, as sales traditionally drop after the holiday shopping season and the introduction of new models. But Apple’s forecast, which calls for revenue between $50 billion and $53 billion in the current period, means the company will likely fall short of the $58 billion it had a year earlier.

That would be Apple’s first year-over-year sales decline since the January-March quarter of 2003 – long before the company began selling iPhones and iPads. Back then, Apple was a fraction of its current size, reporting quarterly revenue of just $1.45 billion.