Africa-Press – Gambia. Apple will abandon its sequential version numbers for operating systems, adopting a unified year-based naming convention across all platforms starting with “26” for the 2026 model year.
According to sources familiar with the plans, iOS 18 will become iOS 26, macOS 15 will transition to macOS 26, and iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS will follow the same pattern. The change, set for formal announcement at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 9, aims to simplify branding and align software releases across devices.
This overhaul resolves current inconsistencies where simultaneously released platforms carry different version numbers (e.g., iOS 18 alongside watchOS 12). The strategy mirrors practices in the automotive industry, labeling software for the upcoming calendar year—software launching in September 2025 will bear the “26” designation despite releasing months before 2026. Rivals like Samsung and Microsoft have employed similar year-based branding for hardware and software.
The rebranding coincides with Apple’s sweeping “Solarium” visual redesign, affecting interfaces across tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS. Functional updates include a Mac-like productivity interface for iPad, a bidirectional Arabic-English keyboard with Apple Pencil calligraphy support, real-time AirPods translation, and Vision Pro eye-scrolling navigation. AI enhancements encompass health diagnostics, intelligent battery management via Apple Intelligence, and open access to Apple’s AI models for third-party developers.
The full suite of updates will debut in September 2025, marking Apple’s most significant software rebranding since the launch of macOS X in 2001.
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