Apple to rename iOS, MacOS, and iPadOS

This could be related to the major rebrand.

For the past 18 years, iOS (originally iPhoneOS), and later iPadOS, have always been increasing by one each year starting at 1 all the way to 18. Now, Apple wants to flip the script and rename all of their operating systems, including MacOS, to be at 26. No more iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and MacOS 16, now, it is iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and MacOS 26.

The obvious reason for this is to align the OSes with the year that they came out, but what is odd about this is that they will not only be announced in 2025, but they will also be released to the public in 2025, as far as we know. This causes me to speculate that Apple could change things up and release the operating systems next year instead, even though they are announcing them this year. This would make no sense, because even if they were released in January, 6 months after in June, the next one would be announced.

The name rebrand goes in line with what has been previously reported, that Apple will fully redesign the UI for all of their operating systems. This makes sense, because in the past, like with Apple's release of MacOS X, they released a whole new operating system design.

It is a bit weird that they are moving in this direction because it is the same naming convention, but they are skipping numbers. They also have done that before, with the release of the iPhone X and skipping iPhone 9.

What they could also do is have it be iOS '26, to really signal the year aspect of the naming scheme. The fact that it is just iOS 26 is odd, so this could add some sense to this.

We will have to wait and see what they will do with the OSes on June 9th at 10:00 AM PT at WWDC. Stay tuned until then.