Why Are Apple’s iPhones Always on 9:41?


Look at any current iPhone advertisement, and you’ll notice that, no matter the screenshot, it’s always 9:41am. It used to be 9:42am. What’s going on?

It could be anything. 3:16am or 4:20pm if you prefer. But it’s not. It’s always possible — Apple being Apple — that Apple’s designers work very long hours, and it just happened to be that their screengrabs were all at the same time.

But this isn’t so. It’s quite deliberate.

9:41 (or 9:42 in some older images) was quite deliberate, as Business Insider discovered. Former Apple exec Bob Borcher — because, let’s face it, nobody inside Apple is likely to confirm this — states that it’s because they’re set to run at around the time Apple expects the unveiling of a new iPhone to actually happen at a keynote. They can’t pick it precisely — which is why it’s wobbled between 9:41 and 9:42 — but the idea is that when a new iGadget is unveiled, the screenshots should match up with the time of the presentation. [Business Insider]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.