Apple Again Rumored to Announce iOS 26 Next Month

[Robert.Walter]

but iOS23 was such a stable operating system with seemingly endless battery life, and nearly perfect cell reception.

Snow Leopard !!!

 

[Robert.Walter]

There should be a law against that kind of naming deception. If you start selling your product in 2025, then it's a 2025 product, not 2026. That's it, that's all. Otherwise, what would prevent a company from calling "2026" a product that comes out in May 2025, or even December 2024 while we're at it? That's very possible in a competitive environment where everyone tries to release its new product before the others to get a head start.

The 1964-1/2 1965 Mustang would like a word.

 

[maxoakland]

There are zero downsides to this that I can see. I seriously feel like people just hate any change in their life at all and feel the need to complain about it.

I think it’s lame and Microsoft already did it in 1995. I’m sure Apple will abandon it too, eventually​

 

[testcard]

iOS Zero. Slimmed down and no calories.

 

[Ursadorable]

Remember all the Apple Intelligence features that didn’t show up in iOS 18. They’re still coming in iOS 19.

Surely by the time iOS 26 is released, Apple Intelligence will finally be intelligent.

 

[jeremyw013]

It is also possible that they change the naming convention to unify all OSs under a single name. Think of “Apple OS 26” for all their platforms…

That would make absolutely zero sense. They're all entirely separate platforms.

 

[iLLUMI]

is it bad that the first thing that comes to mind for me is Windows '95?

Yep, that is exactly what popped into my mind too.
And it makes you wonder now, will MS copy Apple and go back to a 'year' based numbering convention.

Windows 2026 (They would need to add the century in front otherwise Windows 95 would sound futristic, not historical .. haaa!)
Surface Pro 26

 

[Jeeve Stubbs]

Yep, that is exactly what popped into my mind too.
And it makes you wonder now, will MS copy Apple and go back to a 'year' based numbering convention.

Windows 2026 (They would need to add the century in front otherwise Windows 95 would sound futristic, not historical .. haaa!)
Surface Pro 26

I don't think so, because unlike macOS, Windows doesn't get a new version every year. For example, Windows 11 came out in 2021, and "Windows 2021 (or 2022)" would sound outdated at this point. IMHO, if Apple only released new versions of macOS when there's a real technical reason to do so, we wouldn't get one every year.