Apple always sets the time on iPhones and iPads as 9.41 during launch. Here's why

Promotional visuals of iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro also show the time stamp of 9.41. (Image credit: Apple)

Have you ever noticed how Apple products such as iPhones and iPads in every promotional photo are set to 9.41? Even the recently-released iPhone 16 is set to 9.41 in its promotional videos and photos. Turns out, it's not a random coincidence, but a carefully made choice. Earlier on, Apple products were apparently photographed with a time of 9.42.

The answer lies in Apple founder Steve Jobs and his meticulously crafted product launch presentations, Scott Forstall, former senior vice president of iOS software at Apple and leader of the original iPhone and iPad software development team, told Inc.com. "We design the keynotes so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation," he said. "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."

Team Apple preferred to be early rather than late and gave themselves an extra couple of minutes and set the devices to 9.42 am in product photos. But as Jobs practiced his presentation, it seemed he would unveil the first iPhone at 9:41 am and so the image of the phone was set for 9.41.

When Jobs introduced the original iPhone at MacWorld 2007, at 9.41 am, the first image of the phone with its screen turned on appeared on the giant screen behind him with the time set to 9.41 am. "It turned out we were pretty accurate with that estimate, so for the iPad, we made it 41 minutes," Inc.com quoted Forstall as saying. "And there you are--the secret of the magic time."