The update is available to all registered users part of the Apple Developer Program. Apple has released its second iOS 26 beta to developers, and the...
And the explanation for 26 is that it’s the version for 2026.
Seems like a good choice when settling on a common number for all the operating systems.
Similar to MY26 in cars etc.
Say you released version 2023, 2024, and 2025, all of which are in support at the same time. It’s 2025, but your latest release might be 2023.2, which looks like it’s out of date to a user.
And the explanation for 26 is that it’s the version for 2026. Seems like a good choice when settling on a common number for all the operating systems. Similar to MY26 in cars etc.
Date-based versioning sounds great in theory, but if you have more than one version in support at once then it can get ugly quickly
What do you mean?
Say you released version 2023, 2024, and 2025, all of which are in support at the same time. It’s 2025, but your latest release might be 2023.2, which looks like it’s out of date to a user.
Ah, I get you.
Apple bumps the version number for everything every year nowadays, so not a problem for them.
What do they do about devices that are still getting minor updates or fixes but not new major versions?
At the mo, it would be something like macOS 15.5.1, iOS 18.2.2, etc
It will just move to year. major point update. minor point update so for example: 26.5.2