In a last-minute shocker of a report, it emerged last week that WWDC 2025 will see Apple rename all of its operating systems. Instead of having numbers based on the annual versions (like iOS 18 or watchOS 11) or arbitrary versions (like iPadOS 18 or macOS 15), they will now simply all be named after the year. The year when they are mostly in circulation, technically, rather than the one when they launch… but let’s take the wins where we can.
In other words, last year’s iOS 18 will be followed by this year’s iOS 26, watchOS 11 will be followed by watchOS 26, and visionOS 2 will be followed by visionOS 26. This will all seem a bit disorienting at first, but it does make sense once you detach your thinking from the idea that everything indicates (or lies about) the age in years of a given platform. Nobody thought Windows 95 was the 95th version of Windows, or that Windows came out in the year 1900. We were used to it once; we’ll get used to it again.
And this is a good thing. I would submit that the average iPhone owner does not pore over the latest iOS release notes and that many would be unable to tell you which version of iOS they are currently running. If that fictional everyman checked Settings and learned that it was 18.5, I further submit that they would likely not know if this was a new or old version, and whether or not it was a matter of urgency to update. But iOS 26 is pretty self-explanatory. It isn’t just an in-house designator for the engineering department at Apple Park; it’s a useful piece of information for the user.
So why not take the idea further? If year-based branding makes sense for free software releases (and bear in mind that Apple once named editions of iLife and iWork as ’04, ’05, and so on), then it makes even more sense for costly hardware purchases where information is at a premium. I’ve often spoken to prospective buyers who are confused by the differences between the iPhone 14 Pro and the iPhone 15 Plus, or how the SE fits in with the rest of the generations. Why not help them out by offering an iPhone 26 (or ’26, perhaps), in the style of a 1978 Ford Fiesta? That way, customers know what they’re getting and have a better chance of accurately comparing the different offerings. It would also make it harder for unscrupulous resellers to imply that old stock is more up-to-date than it really is.
Sure, iPhone ’26 looks like an odd brand name in isolation, and the social media jokers will have plenty of fun at its expense. But it’s not like iPhone 17 is much better. I can’t imagine that Apple’s marketing team back in 2007 (or perhaps we should say 2010, given that the iPhone 4 was the first model named after its generation number) thought the company wouldn’t have come up with a better naming convention all these years later. People in the tech press used to joke about products of the future, and bandy about terms like Xbox 19 and PlayStation 23 as the silliest thing imaginable. It’s frankly ludicrous that there’s an iPhone 16 in real life, and will soon be followed by, we’re pretty sure, an iPhone 17.
Now that we’ve agreed the iPhone’s version number can be replaced by its year, there are plenty more tweaks we can make to the branding. Plus, Max, mini: these are imprecise and somewhat misleading terms that mostly refer to size but cover other elements too. So if we mean size, we’ll make that completely clear. I’ll take the iPhone ’26, please. Excellent. Would you like that in the 6- or 7-inch size? If it’s good enough for the MacBook, it’s good enough for the iPhone. (And the iPad, too, for that matter. Now that is a preposterously confusing set of descriptors.)
I’ll make an exception, however, for the upcoming iPhone Slim… provided it is called that and not iPhone Air. Slim is a helpful and easily comprehensible term; Air is vague. And the iPhone Slim isn’t going to be simply thinner than a standard model–it will contain numerous compromises. It’s a separate product and deserves its own branding.
Finally, that leaves the brands that refer to power and/or feature set. Pro, on the top end, and “e” on the bottom. The question is, are these helpful to the customer, are they for the benefit of the marketeer, or are they confusing for everyone? I would say a mixture of the second and third options.
If I had my way this would change to the iPhone ’26 Budget, Standard, and Deluxe, which everyone would understand. But I can see why Tim Cook probably wouldn’t go for that: Budget sounds bad, Standard sounds boring, and Deluxe is just a bit, well, naff. We have to allow Apple a little room for marketing magic, after all, and Pro does at least have the advantage of long-term usage. So we’ll keep Pro and ditch the cryptic “e” completely. The 16e was, as far as I can see, created entirely so Apple could sell a budget phone that supports Apple Intelligence. Now that hurdle has been cleared, budget customers can simply buy a model from a previous year.
So here’s our final range. I think it has the advantages of being both easy to understand and easy to market.
- iPhone ’26
- iPhone ’26 Pro (in two sizes, like the MacBook)
- iPhone ’26 Slim
Agree? Disagree? Answers to the Apple marketing department.
Foundry
Welcome to our weekly Apple Breakfast column, which includes all the Apple news you missed last week in a handy bite-sized roundup. We call it Apple Breakfast because we think it goes great with a Monday morning cup of coffee or tea, but it’s cool if you want to give it a read during lunch or dinner hours too.
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Podcast of the week
The iPhone is Apple’s dominant platform, and by an extremely wide margin. We talk about the state of the iPhone and iOS, where it’s at and what we can expect in the near future. It’s all in episode 936 of the Macworld Podcast.
You can catch every episode of the Macworld Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, the Podcasts app, or our own site.
Reviews corner
The rumor mill
Will new Apple hardware steal iOS 26’s thunder at WWDC 2025?
Report: WWDC interface overhaul will be ‘more widely felt’ than iOS 7.
Apple’s Luxo Jr.-like tabletop robot has reportedly been fast-tracked for launch.
Apple is reportedly dropping support for nearly every Intel Mac this year.
Software updates, bugs, and problems
Apple is reportedly skipping iOS 19 and jumping straight to iOS 26.
iOS 19 will reportedly include a dedicated gaming app.
Apple just launched a new Logic Pro feature that records even if you forget.
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