Weird reason Apple always sets the time to 9:41 when they launch a new iPhone

The recent Apple event saw the introduction of the new iPhone 16, which will run iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence.

The ‘Glowtime’ event sent people into a frenzy on social media as the tech giant unveiled lots of new features for fans to look forward to.

These include display customization, call recording, and a complete revamp of Siri where the virtual assistant will be able to edit pictures, send them to a contact or condense notes into an email - all with just a single voice prompt.

The iPhones are always set to 9:41 in product shots (Apple)

The new iPhone and iPhone Pro models were officially launched and fans were given an insight into the devices' improved operations and camera functions.

The new Apple Watch Series 10 was also introduced with a thinner but brighter screen and an incredible sleep apnoea detection feature.

However, there was one particular thing during the announcements that viewers couldn’t help but notice.

The time on the phone displays while showing the latest iPhone model was set to 9:41 and eagle-eyed fans realized that this is always the time set on Apple products during launches.

But it begs the question - why?

Well, it’s actually all down to the company’s founder, Steve Jobs.

Scott Forstall, who is the former senior vice president of iOS software at Apple and leader of the original iPhone and iPad software development team, explained it all, saying: “We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation.

The time on the phones were set by Steve Jobs (Apple)

“When the big image of the product appears on screen, we want the time shown to be close to the actual time on the audience's watches. But we know we won't hit 40 minutes exactly.”

Still, Apple decided that it wanted to be early rather than late and so gave themselves a couple extra minutes by setting the device times to 9:42 when capturing the product shots.

But when Jobs was practicing his speech, he realized that the reveal of the iPhone would actually happen a minute earlier, at 9.41.

Ever the perfectionist, the image of the phone was changed accordingly to match the real time that fans would see the phone for the first time.

Forstall went on to add: “It turned out we were pretty accurate with that estimate, so for the iPad, we made it 41 minutes. And there you are--the secret of the magic time.”

So, that's the mystery solved!