Apple is said to have decided to significantly change the operating system (OS) name as part of a current device software overhaul.
Bloomberg News reported on the 29th, citing sources, that Apple's next-generation operating system will be distinguished by year instead of the existing version numbers.
The next-generation mobile operating system from Apple, set to be updated in September, is expected to be named 'iOS 26' instead of 'iOS 19', and the iPad operating system is projected to be called 'iPadOS 26'.
The OS for computers and Apple Watch is also expected to be called macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26.
Apple is reported to have decided to change the operating system names to enhance brand consistency and avoid confusion for customers and developers caused by the existing approach.
The current operating systems, including iOS 18, watchOS 12, macOS 15, and visionOS 2, use different numbers because their initial versions were not released at the same time.
Apple plans to announce this change at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which will be held on the 9th of next month.
According to Bloomberg, Apple made this decision to provide a consistent experience across the operating systems when users transition between devices. Internally, it is reported that the new OS design has been named 'Solarium'.
Attaching the year to the OS is similar to the approach taken by Samsung Electronics and Microsoft. Samsung named its flagship smartphone Galaxy S20 by following the release year when it launched in 2020. The predecessor was released in 2019, but it was named Galaxy S10 to reflect that it was the 10th generation model.
Microsoft has named its major operating systems with the release year since 1995, including Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows 2000.
However, Apple is expected to attach the following year instead of the current year. The next-generation OS launching in September will bear the number 26 instead of 25, and new products coming out next year will carry the number 27. This is similar to how automotive companies attach the following year when releasing new models, referring to them as the 2025 model and the 2026 model.