The iPhone 5 Show: Why Apple Switched Speakers Every 10 Minutes

by | Sep 14, 2012

tim cook image

Apple CEO, Tim Cook

Apple CEO Tim Cook was the first to appear on stage for the launch of the new iPhone on Wednesday, September 12, but he was far from the only person to speak. Eleven other individuals—Apple executives, partners, and developers—shared the stage in person or on video. Actually, the audience heard from more than one dozen different voices if you include Siri and the band, Foo Fighters.

Apple product launches are notable for multiple speakers, visually engaging slides, videos, and music because Apple presentation designers understand the need to adhere to “The 10-Minute Rule.” Simply put, your audience gets really bored after a short amount of time and it happens no matter how pretty you think your PowerPoint slides are. How much time? Ten minutes. Not eleven minutes, but ten.

According to John Medina, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington medical school, “The brain seems to be making choices according to some stubborn timing pattern, undoubtedly influenced by both culture and gene.” Medina once told me that in every college course he teaches he asks the same question of his students: “Given a class of medium interest, not too boring and not too exciting, when do you start glancing at the clock, wondering when the class will be over?” The answer is always exactly the same—ten minutes. That means as a speaker you need to re-engage the audience after approximately ten minutes or less. Here’s how Apple executives did so.

Jony Ive

Apple's Jony Ive

10:00 a.m. Tim Cook kicked off the presentation by delivering updates on the Apple Retail Store.
10:12 Cook introduced Apple marketing executive, Phil Schiller, who introduced the new iPhone 5. The 10-Minute Rule is a guideline. It’s nearly impossible to completely re-engage the audience at exactly ten minutes throughout an entire product launch or presentation, but Apple comes darn close.
10:22 As Schiller continued to present, I began to think Apple would violate the rule by a long shot. But at 10: 26, Schiller invited Rob Murray, the executive director of EA studios, to demonstrate a video game. That fourteen-minute portion of the presentation—from 10:12 to 10:26— was the longest span between two speakers for the rest of the product launch.
10:28 Schiller returns to stage to talk about battery life, camera, and other features.
10:39 Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iOS software, conducted a demonstration. Although Forstall’s demo lasted for twelve minutes, he introduced a new and improved Siri, who answered his queries about fantasy football scores, movie times, and places to eat. In essence, Forstall shared the stage with another voice, Siri, in the twelve minute demo.
10:51 Schiller returns and plays a video featuring other Apple executives including chief designer Jony Ive.
10:59 Schiller returns to reveal the prices of the new models.
11:00 Cook returns to the stage and introduces the music/iTunes portion of the presentation.
11:03 Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet software and services, reveals a new version of iTunes.
11:06 Apple’s Jeff Robin takes the stage to demonstrate iTunes.
11:15 Another Apple executive, Greg Joswiak, is introduced and reveals new iPods.
11:23 Joswiak hands it over to a game developer for a brief demo of a mobile game.
11:26 Joswiak returns to discuss back battery life and pricing.
11:38 Cook returns to introduce Foo Fighters.
Apple's Phil Schiller

Apple's Phil Schiller

How does this apply to your very next presentation, especially if you’re the only one delivering the presentation? Keep the audience engaged frequently. The 10-Minute Rule does not mean that the only way to break up the presentation is by introducing multiple speakers. Apple has the luxury of doing so. If you can have a second speaker, by all means do so. But here are some others ways of keeping to the rule:

  • Introduce a short video of no more 2 minutes and 30 seconds. This can be a look inside the company, the making of the product, a customer, or another member of the team.
  • Get away from the PowerPoint deck for a minute or two and tell a story.
  • Ask a question of the audience or elicit their participation in some way.
  • Launch a demonstration.
Scott Forstall

Apple's Scott Forstall

Above all, keep them engaged during the 10-minute chunks of time by keeping your presentation slides visually engaging (see some of my previous articles for more tips on the visual display of information).

The 10-Minute Rule makes sense because the brain needs a break. After ten minutes it will look for something else to do. Don’t give your audience a chance to be distracted. Bring their attention back to where it belongs—on you and your story.