That embarrassing moment during iPhone X launch? Apple reveals what happened

As Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi introduced the Face ID on Tuesday, he could not unlock Apple’s latest phone on his first attempt during the on-stage presentation.

Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering Craig Federighi speaks during an Apple special event at the Steve Jobs Theatre on the Apple Park campus. (AFP Photo)

Two days after an embarrassing moment on stage, Apple sought to clarify on Thursday what happened when Face ID unlocking on the iPhone X didn't work on the first attempt during a demo.

While launching the 10th anniversary phone on Tuesday, Apple senior vice president Craig Federighi could not successfully unlock the latest iPhone with Face ID on stage.

The iPhone X, priced at ₹89,000 in India, has an infrared camera and hardware for facial recognition, which replaces the fingerprint sensor for unlocking the phone. The home button is also gone, and users instead tap the device to wake it up.

"Unlocking it is as easy as looking at it and swiping up," Apple's software head Federighi said at the newly launched Steve Jobs Theatre. It didn't work and Federighi pressed the 'sleep' button to turn off the screen and said: "Let's try that again."

Again, it didn't work. "Ho ho ho! Let's go to backup here!" he said, picking up another device ready to be used during the demonstration. The backup device worked.

Describing what went wrong during the launch event, an Apple representative told Yahoo Finance's David Pogue: "People were handling the device for the stage demo ahead of time and didn't realize Face ID was trying to authenticate their face. After failing a number of times, because they weren't Craig, the iPhone did what it was designed to do, which was to require his passcode."