Apple introduced iOS 26 in September last year, which came as a surprise to many since the previous version was iOS 18. So why did Apple jump from iOS 18 to iOS 26?
Well, it’s because Apple’s accumulated a lot of different operating systems over the years. And their version numbers aren’t very intuitive. For example, iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS are all on version 18, which implies they’ve all been around for 18 years. But that’s only the case for one of them, iOS, which came out in 2007, and has been updated once a year since then.
But the history of iPadOS is more complicated. Despite the iPad being released in 2010, the operating system didn’t have its own name until nine years later in 2019. But how could that be? Well, Apple just said iPad ran iOS, the same operating system as iPhone. And that made sense at the time, because in the early days of iPad, it didn’t have any unique software features compared to iPhone. People just liked it for the bigger screen.
In fact, when iOS 4 came out, multitasking was one of its headlining features. But iPad didn’t receive it until five months after iPhone. It wasn’t until 2015, with iOS 9, that Apple began adding iPad-exclusive features. Like slideover, split view, and picture-in-picture.
By 2019, iOS running on iPad began looking quite different from iPhone. To make a distinction between the two devices, Apple changed the name of iPad’s operating system from iOS to iPadOS. And while this proved to be the right move, it ended up causing confusion. Because Apple didn’t name the first version iPadOS 1, they named it iPadOS 13. On one hand, this made sense, since it matched the version number of iOS. But on the other hand, it was misleading.
Traditionally, the purpose of Apple’s version numbers is to indicate how many times something has been updated. iOS 13was its 13th update, Safari 9 was its 9th update, iTunes 12 was its 12th update, and so on. But Apple broke from this trend with iPadOS 13. Although it wasn’t their first time.
macOS also has a complicated release history. Today we’re on macOS 15. But during Apple’s modern era, it’s actually been updated 21 times. And technically, the first 16 versions were all called macOS 10, since Apple used decimal points to represent each release. Like macOS 10.1, then 10.2, instead of macOS 11 and 12.
Then things got even more confusing when the code name for their 2002 update was leaked. Internally, every project Apple works on has a code name. For example, iPhone was called Purple, iPad was called K48, and the Apple Watchwas called Gizmo. These names are used to prevent employees from leaking information about upcoming products.
The code names Apple had used for macOS 10 came from big cats. Version 10.0 was called Cheetah, and version 10.1 was called Puma. Both of these code names were kept secret. But with macOS 10.2, its code name Jaguar was leaked, and it was posted all over internet forums and rumor sites. Luckily for Apple, people like the name, and their marketing team suggests using it to promote the operating system. Apple even used Pixar’s 3D rendering technology to create a realistic graphic of an X covered in fur.
So for the first time, Apple not only assigned macOS a version number, 10.2, but also a name, Jaguar. This continued until we ended up with Lion and Mountain Lion. As you can imagine, they were starting to run out of cat names.
So in 2013, they switched to naming macOS 10 updates after natural landmarks in California. And in 2015, Craig Federighi said this: "OS 10 has been with us for over 15 years, but when we look at it alongside our other operating systems, something sticks out. We realized there was a name that would be so much clearer and so much more elegant. And so the name is now macOS."
So they dropped the Roman numeral 10 from its name, but it was still in the version number. It wasn’t until 2020 that Apple moved on from 10 completely with macOS 11. Every year since then, they’ve followed the same pattern as their other operating systems with macOS 12, 13, 14, and 15.
Now let’s take a look at tvOS, which was heavily influenced by the Mac. In fact, its initial interface was just an updated version of Front Row, a Mac media center application. And the OS didn’t even have a name. Apple typically just updated the interface when a new model of Apple TV came out. It wasn’t until 2015 when the operating system was officially called tvOS, and they gave it the number 9 to match the corresponding version of iOS.
So by 2020, Apple had made a lot of progress in optimizing their operating system lineup. iPad went from running iOS to iPadOS. The Mac went from being stuck on the same OS 10 number for 16 years to receiving a new number every year, and tvOS became a distinct operating system.
This resulted in the lineup we have today. With iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS. The names are streamlined, intuitive, and clear. But there’s a whole other side to this equation that isn’t so clear, and that is their version numbers.
Three of them match. iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and tvOS 18. But the other three are all over the place. With macOS 15, watchOS 11, and visionOS 2.
Now you could argue this isn’t an issue, since each number just represents how many updates there have been. But as we covered earlier, that’s not actually true. Apple has been pretty inconsistent with how they name and number their operating systems. Yes, iOS 18 has had 18 versions, but macOS 15 has had about 30 versions. tvOS 18 has had 17 versions, and iPadOS 18 has had 6 versions. So users are left thinking, what do these numbers even mean?
In an effort to clear up this confusion, Apple completely rethought how they numbered their operating systems. Now you might assume they’d just make each number reflect how many versions of that OS had been released. But this actually becomes pretty complicated.
Consider macOS. Technically, the first version was released in 1984, although that wasn’t its name at the time. Back then it was called Macintosh Systems Software. Would you include all those early versions in the total number of macOS updates today? And what about iPadOS? It technically ran iOS for its first nine years. Would you still count those versions when calculating its number?
I think the more important question is, does Apple need to advertise an operating system’s version history? I mean, the Mac went 16 years with this same number, OS 10, and they didn’t even use numbers to differentiate between versions. They used cats.
So what might make the most sense is moving away from version history and instead focusing on something that does three things. First, unifies all six of their operating systems. Because it doesn’t really make sense that Vision OS 2 came out the same year as iOS 18. Second, it should be easy to understand which version came out when. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people ask what version of iOS are we on now, because the numbers are all over the place. And third, it should be a long-term solution that won’t break down with the release of a new operating system or when dividing one OS into two, like what happened with iPad.
So what was Apple’s solution? Well, they did what the car industry has been doing for decades. Giving new updates a number based on the upcoming year. That’s why Apple skipped iOS 19 and jumped all the way to iOS 26. It may not seem intuitive today, but it solves all the problems Apple’s had, and it’ll make updates much easier to understand going forward.
