Ever wondered why 9:41 is the time displayed on all iPhone, iPad and other Apple product images? Find the reason inside

At the Glowtime event on Monday, Apple launched its iPhone 16 series, along with AirPods4 and watch Series 10. Apart from the event, one thing that draws traction is the time displayed on Apple devices, including iPads, iPhones, and others, during their launch, which is precisely 9:41 am. Over the years, the same pattern has been consistently observed. We have uncovered the exact reason behind this be followed in the subsequent sections.

To quote Apple’s former senior vice president of iOS software, Scott Forstall, “We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation. When the big image of the product appears on the 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”. 

Initially, the time to be displayed was set to 9:42 am, as the company wanted to give itself an extra 2 minutes, setting the devices to 9.42 am in product photos. However, when Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, rehearsed his presentation, he finished it by 9:41, leading to the product image displaying at 9:41 am. 

Forstall adds, “We continued the tradition, setting the time to 4:41 am. There you have it – the secret behind the magic time!”

Another notable change in Apple’s latest launch is their departure from the tradition of launching flagship devices on Fridays and rather opting for a Monday, September 9. 

In other developments related to Apple- after launching the next generation iPhone 16 Series, Apple has announced huge cost reductions on its flagship models like the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 models in India. Indian buyers can now avail of discounts of up to Rs 10,000 while purchasing these handsets. The 128GB variant of the iPhone 15 is currently available for Rs 69,900, as compared to its original price of Rs 79,600.