09:41

Maybe you hadn’t noticed it either (I certainly hadn’t), that on all screenshots of Apple’s products whenever they show the time digitally (i.e. not on the analog face of the iWatch) the time seems to be 09:41 hours.

The story behind it is quite amusing, and, as you may have guessed, it is obviously not a random choice. The answer has to do with Steve Jobs and his very carefully crafted product launch presentations. The keynotes are designed so that the big reveal of the product happens around 40 minutes into the presentation. When the big image of the new product appears on screen, the time shown should be as close as possible to the actual time on the audience’s watches.

Preferring to be early rather than late, the team literally gave themselves an extra couple of minutes and set the devices to 9:42 a.m. in product photos. But as Jobs practiced his presentation, it seemed he would unveil the first iPhone at 9:41 a.m. and so the image of the phone was set for 9:41. And it worked like a charm. When Jobs introduced the original iPhone at MacWorld 2007, 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 a.m. at precisely 9:41 a.m.

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When Jobs was still doing them, not all presentations were timed with the big reveal around the 40 minute mark. Still, the 9:41 time has stuck, and it speaks volumes about a company that pays attention to detail to the nth degree.

We all most of the time don’t want to get bogged down in the nitty gritty and focus on the strategic issues, the big picture. But is exactly this attention to detail for which Steve Jobs was famous (and infamous) for that make companies like Apple and their products what they are. And that’s surely something we all can something learn from.