--- title: The Internet Is All Over Tim Cook's Awkward iPhone Fail description: During an appearance at Oxford University, Apple CEO Tim Cook just couldn't keep his iPhone X in his pocket — to the internet's delight. canonical: https://time.com/4982174/tim-cook-iphone-fail/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-13T19:31:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:01.575Z og:title: The Internet Is All Over Tim Cook's Sliding iPhone og:description: His iPhone just didn't want to stay in his pocket og:url: https://time.com/4982174/tim-cook-iphone-fail/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt561d910aea8a44f3/6988e1eebc6cfc7efa3e3869/tim-cook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: Key Speakers At The Bloomberg Global Business Forum og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Is All Over Tim Cook's Sliding iPhone twitter:description: His iPhone just didn't want to stay in his pocket twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt561d910aea8a44f3/6988e1eebc6cfc7efa3e3869/tim-cook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Is All Over Tim Cook's iPhone Casually Escaping His Pocket > Sponsored content. 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The forum, hosted during UN General Assembly week, brings leaders to work together, through on-the-record mainstage discussions and private bilateral and multilateral meetings, to address the most pressing economic issues facing us today. Photographer: Misha Friedman/Bloomberg via Getty Images Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple Inc., speaks during the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2017\. The forum, hosted during UN General Assembly week, brings leaders to work together, through on-the-record mainstage discussions and private bilateral and multilateral meetings, to address the most pressing economic issues facing us today. Photographer: Misha Friedman/Bloomberg via Getty Images Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Oct 13, 2017 7:31 PM UTC When you’re the CEO and head evangelist of one of the world’s [biggest technology companies](http://fortune.com/2017/09/23/face-id-privacy-iphone-x/), it’s important for you to rep your products around the clock — and to make sure they function smoothly whenever the public is looking. And while Apple boss Tim Cook’s iPhone isn’t exactly malfunctioning, the internet is getting some good laughs from his very human mishap with the smartphone. During a [question-and-answer event](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43UzfpcqiEU) onstage to help launch an [entrepreneurship incubator](https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/school/giving/oxford-foundry) at Oxford University this week, a seated Cook had serious difficulty keeping his not-yet-released [iPhone X](http://time.com/4946936/iphone-8-plus-review/) in his pants pocket. Audience members captured the device making a casual escape for it over the course of the session — until Cook couldn’t help but sneak a peek at his phone once it was no longer put away. “Perfect way to smoothly check your notifications,” joked one Twitter account. “Next year Apple, reinvent the pants,” added another on Reddit. If you’re reading, Cook, don’t worry: happens to the best of us. > [](https://twitter.com/flyosity/status/918818328109637633) > [](https://twitter.com/SplungeKik/status/918907595884072960) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4982174/tim-cook-iphone-fail/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4982174/tim-cook-iphone-fail/"},"headline":"The Internet Is All Over Tim Cook's iPhone Casually Escaping His Pocket","datePublished":"2017-10-13T19:31:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:48:01.575Z","description":"During an appearance at Oxford University, Apple CEO Tim Cook just couldn't keep his iPhone X in his pocket — to the internet's delight.","url":"https://time.com/4982174/tim-cook-iphone-fail/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Apple","Technology","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt561d910aea8a44f3/6988e1eebc6cfc7efa3e3869/tim-cook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt561d910aea8a44f3/6988e1eebc6cfc7efa3e3869/tim-cook.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Key Speakers At The Bloomberg Global Business Forum","caption":"Key Speakers At The Bloomberg Global Business Forum","creditText":"Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4982174/tim-cook-iphone-fail/","name":"The Internet Is All Over Tim Cook's iPhone Casually Escaping His Pocket"}}]}] ```