Why the iPhone Time is Stuck at 9:42 and the iPad is Stuck at 9:41

Scott Forstall, Senior Vice President of iPhone Software, explains why the time for the iPhone is stuck at at 9:42 and the time for the iPad is stuck at 9:41.

This information comes via Jon Manning, Lead Developer at Secret Labs. Manning happened to notice Forstall in an Apple Store at the iPad launch and decided to ask him this puzzling question.

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“Why’s the time changed? Heck, why does the iPhone show 9:42 in the first place?”


Scott looked around conspiratorially, and then chuckled.

“You want to know the real reason for that time?”

I nodded, with no small amount of eager anticipation.

“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 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.”


“So you add a couple of minutes.”

“Yeah! And for the iPhone, we made it 42 minutes. 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 what you’re saying is that you picked a number close enough to suit your needs, and used it in the keynote and all promotional images.”

“Yep! It’s as simple as that.”
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So now you know!

Read More [via Edwin]