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If you know Apple, you’ve almost certainly heard of the phrase “one more thing.” It’s been Apple’s favorite way to introduce an unexpected new product or feature at its events for decades, and its mere utterance is enough to send fans into bouts of frenzied excitement.

Back when Apple’s events were still in person, Steve Jobs would take to the stage and deliver the keynote address – also known as a 'Stevenote' – to highlight all of Apple’s latest updates. They became known for their ending flourishes, where Jobs would pretend to wrap things up, before pausing and uttering his signature phrase: “actually, there is one more thing.” Cue the rapture.

The first ‘one more thing’ … sort of (January 1998)

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The moment that kickstarted an iconic trend found its origins at the MacWorld San Francisco event in 1998. After showcasing various apps that would work with the latest Mac software, Steve Jobs thanked attendees for coming and feigned walking off stage.

Before leaving, though, he stopped himself, announcing, “I forgot something. There is one last thing I gotta tell you.” He thanked all of Apple’s teams for their efforts, before revealing that the company was finally profitable again.

This was big news at the time. Apple was on the brink of bankruptcy when Jobs returned in 1997, and he took a machete to its extraneous products and services, cutting the company back to a lean, profitable machine.

Sure, he didn’t quite say “one more thing,” but all the key elements were there: the fake conclusion, the Columbo-esque turn to the audience, the exciting secret revealed. It was a classic move that Jobs refined and perfected over the subsequent years.

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Mac OS X Aqua design and Jobs as CEO (January 2000)

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Two years later, we got a “one more thing” double whammy at January 2000’s MacWorld San Francisco event. The show saw the unveiling of Mac OS X, and after explaining how it worked, Jobs said there was “one more thing” – which in this instance was the visual design, which he dubbed Aqua.

Instead of the grey boxes and scrollbars prevalent in operating systems at the time, Aqua was bright and shiny, a heady mix of brushed metal effects and glossy blue bars. It was unlike anything else and a worthy highlight.

Yet that wasn’t the last “one more thing” of the year – it wasn’t even the last one of this Stevenote. About an hour later, just as he was finishing things off, Jobs dropped another surprise into the mix: no longer would he be the company’s interim CEO, but instead its full-time chief. The statement was met with a standing ovation – considering how Jobs and his team had turned Apple’s fortunes around, this perhaps came as no surprise.