Apple is reportedly set to alter its method to software program naming and successfully skip iOS 19, and it might very nicely work out for the perfect.
The difficulty with Apple’s varied software program choices is that they make little intuitive sense. We at the moment have iOS 18, watchOS 11, and macOS 15, which presents no indication as to which is the oldest platform (it’s macOS, for the document).
A brand new Bloomberg report claims that Apple is planning to alter all that, beginning with the platform we’ve been referring to as iOS 19.
Goodbye iOS 19, howdy iOS 26
In keeping with the ever-reliable Mark Gurman, Apple is planning on making sweeping adjustments to its software program nomenclature that can have an effect on each gadget on its roster.
From the following model of iOS onwards, every new Apple platform might be identified by its 12 months. On this means, we’ll have iOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26 and visionOS 26.
This makes an excessive amount of sense to us, because it signifies that you’ll have the ability to inform instinctually when a specific platform was launched. Shifting ahead, it is going to be easy to distinguish varied legacy platforms.
Apple is predicted to make this announcement at WWDC 2025 on June 9, and it’ll seemingly be accompanied by a brand new and extra unified UI throughout all of Apple’s distinct units.
Apple
Apple’s rivals have set the precedent
Apple isn’t the primary tech firm to achieve this realisation, after all. Again in 2020, Samsung switched the naming of its flagship Galaxy S smartphone sequence to mirror the 12 months of their launch – therefore this 12 months’s Samsung Galaxy S25.
An much more well-known instance – and one which’s extra instantly relevant to Apple’s state of affairs – is Microsoft with its Home windows 95, Home windows 98, and Home windows 2000 working techniques.
After all, Microsoft would proceed to roll that intuitive naming scheme again with ensuing variations, which is why we had Home windows 11 launched in 2021.
One potential level of confusion is that Apple might be utilizing the next 12 months for its naming scheme, not the precise 12 months through which the platform is launched. So shut, Apple. So shut.