With the next-generation model of iOS and different 2025 software program updates, Apple is planning to vary its numbering scheme. Quite than iOS 19, which might logically observe iOS 18, Apple is as a substitute going to name the replace iOS 26. Apple plans to make use of 26 throughout all of its platforms (the quantity representing the upcoming yr), which can presumably be much less complicated than having iOS 19, macOS 16, watchOS 12, and visionOS 3. However what does the change imply for the iPhone?
If Apple is seeking to streamline naming, it may make sense for future iPhone fashions to observe the identical year-based numbering. An iPhone 26 or iPhone 26 Professional that launches with iOS 26 could be extra logical than an iPhone 17 that runs iOS 26, not less than till that iPhone 26 must be up to date to iOS 27 or iOS 28.
Yr-based numbering for iPhones would make it clear to shoppers when an iPhone got here out. The common iPhone consumer that does not improve on the common most likely cannot inform you the yr that their iPhone launched, as a result of there is not any apparent hyperlink between the iPhone 14 and 2022, or the iPhone 16 and 2024.
Apple might have already got a naming conundrum within the works the place some type of transition will make sense. This yr, we’re on observe to get the iPhone 17. In 2026, the iPhone 18, and in 2027, the iPhone 19. However 2027 is the twentieth anniversary of the iPhone, so will Apple need its twentieth anniversary gadget to be the iPhone 19? Apple did not make that alternative in 2017 on the iPhone’s tenth anniversary, and we by no means ended up with a iPhone 9 as a result of we bought the iPhone X as a substitute.
Apple makes use of year-based numbering for its Macs, although not overtly. The MacBook Air is simply the MacBook Air, however while you’re searching for tech specs or comparability data on Apple’s web site, you may discover that the newest mannequin is the truth is the MacBook Air (M4, 2025). iPhones may additionally simply be “iPhone” and appended in the identical manner.
There’s a disconnect in Mac naming and the best way Apple is doing software program replace naming going ahead, although. Macs are named for the yr they’re launched, however iOS and its sister updates are going to be named for the approaching yr on launch. iOS 26 in September 2025, iOS 27 in September 2026, iOS 28 in September 2027, and so forth. Mac-like numbering for the iPhone could be the good choice as a substitute of the year-ahead numbering, but it surely’s uncertain that Apple will wish to launch an iPhone (2025) operating iOS 26.
Apple may additionally go together with iPad numbering for the iPhone sooner or later. iPads aren’t named like iPhones, and have traditionally used generations. The low-cost iPad, for instance, was the iPad (fifth technology) after which (sixth technology) and (seventh technology) and so forth. Extra lately, Apple is utilizing chips to distinguish between completely different generations of the iPad. So there’s the M2 iPad Air, and the M3 iPad Air, together with the A16 iPad (eleventh technology) and the A17 Professional iPad mini. Chip-based naming most likely will not work for the iPhone prefer it does for the iPad and a few Macs as a result of there are a number of iPhones that use the identical chip. Apple would want to do one thing like iPhone (A19), iPhone Air (A19), iPhone Professional (A19), and iPhone Professional Max (A19), which isn’t any higher for advertising and marketing.
Apple may not change iPhone numbering in any respect, provided that naming throughout iPads, Macs, iPhones, and different units has by no means precisely been simple. Whether or not Apple intends to streamline gadget names going ahead might grow to be clearer on the June 9 Worldwide Builders Convention. We’ll hear concerning the plan to go from iOS 18 to iOS 26 on the keynote occasion, and the best way that Apple frames it would simply present some perception into whether or not we will anticipate the same change for the iPhone to match.
