Apple could be about to borrow its OS naming scheme from Home windows 95

Abstract

In response to a brand new report from Bloomberg, Apple is making ready to rebrand its complete OS portfolio this 12 months.
The corporate is reportedly prepared to modify to a unified naming conference that displays the 12 months of every OS’s launch.
This sweeping change to Apple’s naming scheme is prone to happen on the firm’s WWDC convention in June.

In a brand new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, it has come to mild that Apple is gearing as much as rebrand its complete portfolio of working techniques, which incorporates iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS for the iPhone, the iPad, the Mac, the Apple TV, the Apple Watch, and the Imaginative and prescient Professional, respectively.

“Apple will announce its largest ever software program rebrand at WWDC, tied to working system redesigns. Apple is transferring from model numbers to years (like Home windows within the 90s). The brand new OSs: iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, visionOS 26, tvOS 26, watchOS 26,” says Gurman on X.

At the moment, Apple operates on a yearly replace cadence, with every year’s large characteristic launch demarcated by a brand new complete quantity. All year long, the corporate releases smaller .x updates crammed with smaller tweaks, bug fixes, and safety patches.

…the established order has been one in every of inconsistently numbered releases each 12 months.

As a direct results of the staggered conception of every of Apple’s working techniques, the established order has been one in every of inconsistently numbered releases each 12 months. For instance, 2024 saw the simultaneous reveal of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, but additionally macOS 15, watchOS 11, and VisionOS 2.

By pivoting over to a single quantity that displays the OS’s 12 months of launch, Apple would successfully consolidate its diverse range of operating systems beneath an overarching umbrella. I reckon this may make life simpler for the end-user, as it could take the guess out of realizing whether or not you are on the most recent OS replace or not.

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A unified design language to match a unified naming scheme

ios-19-hero — Entrance Web page Tech / Pocket-lint

Entrance Web page Tech / Pocket-lint

Apple’s reported working system rebrand is large information, however it’s just one a part of this 12 months’s software program puzzle. By adopting a unified visionOS-style software program aesthetic in its subsequent batch of OS releases, the corporate will have the ability to provide a much more constant expertise throughout its platforms as a complete.

This redesign, rumored to be code-named Solarium, is broadly anticipated to characteristic elevated depth components, glassier UI parts, and different new visible prospers. The web is crammed with mock-ups by idea artists, and I am personally a fan of the look in its conceptual kind (I’ve combined emotions concerning the round icons, although).

Fortunately, we can’t have to attend for much longer for the official reveal of Apple’s subsequent main OS updates — the corporate’s software program and developer-focused WWDC25 conference is set to take place from June 9 by means of 13. Greater than anything, I am personally excited concerning the launch of the subsequent model of iPadOS — whether or not it’s referred to as iPadOS 19 or iPadOS 26 — squarely due to the rumored enhancements to Stage Supervisor’s window administration system (via 9to5Mac).