Apple's iPhone Event Tagline is Different in Every Country

Apple today announced it will hold its annual iPhone-centric event on Wednesday, September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. In the U.S. and several other countries, Apple used "Surprise and Shine" as its tagline for the event, but in other countries, the tagline isn't a literal translation.

Here are the different taglines Apple is using on its regional websites.

• U.S., UK, NZ, Australia, Ireland, India, Canada - Surprise and Shine.
• Canada, French - Des surprises dans l'air, or surprises in the air.
• Brazil - Surpreendente e brilhante, or surprising and brilliant.
• Mexico and Latin America - Sorpresas listas para brillar, which means surprises ready to shine.
• Germany, Austria, Switzerland - Staunen und strahlen, or something like wonder/amazement and radiate/shine.
• Spain - Un rayo de wow, which means a ray of wow or a flash of wow.
• France, Belgium - Un jour nouveau. Bientôt. The French phrase is a little different, translating to a new day, soon.
• Italy - L'alba di nuove sorprese, or the dawn of new surprises.
• Denmark - Det bliver solstrålende, or something like it's going to be brilliant/sunny. Solstrålende merges two words that mean sunbeam and brilliant.
• Norway - Tid for gode overraskelser, time for good surprises.
• Sweden - Förväntan. Förundran. Anticipation and wonder.
• Finland - Uudenkoitto, which translates to a new dawn or a new beginning.
• Poland - Zdumienia i olśnienia, which is surprise and amazement, or astonishment and revelation.
• Hungary - Ragyogó meglepetés, radiant/brilliant surprise.
• Portugal - O despontar de surpresas brilhantes, which translates to the dawn of brilliant surprises. Despontar is a word used for daybreak or sunrise, though Apple's Translate app says the phrase means "the unfolding of brilliant surprises."
• Turkey - Işıltılı. Şaşırtıcı. Heyecanlı or dazzling/sparkling, surprising, exciting.
• The Netherlands - Surprise party. Apple left this one in English.
• Czechia - Čas těšení, or time of anticipation.
• UAE, Saudi Arabia - بدايات تسطع بالمفاجآت, which means beginnings that shine with surprises.
• China - 亮新篇，来耀眼, which roughly means a bright new chapter, prepare to be dazzled. The 篇 character can also mean page of a book, which is perhaps an interesting nod to a foldable device.
• Hong Kong - 耀目驚喜，亮起新一章, translates to a dazzling surprise, lighting up a new chapter. It uses a different character for chapter and more clearly says surprise.
• Taiwan - 驚喜耀現，開新篇, meaning something like a dazzling surprise opens a new chapter.
• South Korea - 깜짝 빛날 시간, which translates to something like time to shine with a surprise. 깜짝 is surprise, 빛날 is shine, and 시간 is time.

The different taglines make it clear Apple lets its regional teams write their own content instead of using the same translation worldwide. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China all use the chapter concept, which is absent from the rest of the world. Many of the European translations use a new beginning or a new dawn, along with the same shining or radiant word in the U.S. version. A new beginning is similar to a new chapter, so the Chinese taglines are probably using that context rather than a book-like chapter context, but there may also be an intentional dual meaning there.

For all of the translations to English, there are multiple interpretations because there are characters or words with multiple meanings in English, or phrases that don't translate, but most have the same general meaning as Surprise and Shine.

Some regional Apple pages haven't been updated with the event info yet, including Japan, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, and Vietnam.

We're expecting Apple to introduce the iPhone 18 Pro, the ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max, and the first foldable iPhone at its September 9 event.