Tech

iOS 26 is a huge improvement – but there’s one big problem

One of the bigger leaks from Bloomberg is that what we’ve all been anticipating as iOS 19 will instead be branded as iOS 26 (aka 2026).

In other words, Apple is switching from sequential naming to year-based naming. I think that’s a great idea – but not the silly car-maker business of using next year, for a very practical reason …

Some commenters weren’t overly enthusiastic about the change:

“Apple’s ensh*tification to 90s Microsoft is complete with its adoption of year name products.”

“The first of April has passed a while.”

“Support articles will be a mess with this naming, for starters. This should never happen if you ask me.”

But the majority seem to be in favor, and I’m definitely among them – and the biggest reason is that it unifies the OS update numbers across products. The current iOS 18, watchOS 12, macOS 15, tvOS 18, and visionOS 2 is just a mess.

iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26 is just objectively better.

Of course, the pedant in me objects to the 26 instead of 25. Even on principle, I’d rather Apple didn’t play the same silly game as car manufacturers: it’s not like we’re going to buy an Android phone instead because it has a later version number.

Normally I’d consider that a minor quibble on my part, but it’s not, for a reason I’ll get to in a moment.

Some are suggesting Apple should do the same with iPhone numbers too, so this year’s line-up would be the iPhone 26 instead of the iPhone 17. While there’s a logic to this, I don’t agree for one simple reason: iPhone names are just starting to feel increasingly silly as the numbers get bigger.

Will we end up with an iPhone 53? An iPhone 104? Switching from the existing sequential(ish) numbering to years just accelerates this problem.

A better approach, in my view, is to drop the number altogether, bringing the iPhone in line with other Apple products. Have the current model be just the iPhone (iPhone, iPhone Air, iPhone Pro, iPhone Ultra) and the previous model be the iPhone (year).

However, that brings me back to my problem with the car numbering thing. If Apple launches iOS 26 in 2025, then even if it only uses the name internally, this year’s iPhone becomes the iPhone (2026). And my idea of using year identifiers falls apart.

If Apple launches an iPhone in 2025, and just calls it the iPhone but internally it’s iPhone (2026), then last year’s model becomes the iPhone (2025). So for three-and-a-bit months, we’d have the iPhone and the iPhone (2025) on Apple’s website – and the latter would be the older model!

So I’d like Apple to keep it real. Launch iOS 25 in 2025. Launch the new iPhone in 2025, and just call it iPhone, while keeping last year’s model on sale as the iPhone (2024).

Who’s with me? Please share your thoughts in the comments.