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snow755

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 12, 2012
1,884
844
So I wounder dos apple have any besides iPhone that needs iOS Now days? If not then why not call iOS iPhone OS like iPhone OS 17 like back with iPhone OS 2 ?
 
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CopyChief

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2007
399
507
Because “OS” is generic. iOS is ownable and can be trademarked (and, in fact, is both trademarked and owned.)
 

elvisimprsntr

macrumors 65816
Jul 17, 2013
1,051
1,609
Florida
Why? Pure and simple. Eliminate patent infringement and royalty payments to Cisco and the Brazilian company suing Apple.
 
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winxmac

macrumors 68000
Sep 1, 2021
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2010 - iPad was launched and iPhoneOS was renamed to iOS
2019 - iPod touch 7th generation was released and iPadOS 13 was introduced
2022 - iPod touch 7th generation was discontinued and iOS 16 was released
 
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hovscorpion12

macrumors 68040
Sep 12, 2011
3,010
3,090
USA
Apple started with the name “iPhoneOS, then realized that the name is absolutely trash. Best decision they ever made was iOS.
 

floral

macrumors 65816
Jan 12, 2023
1,011
1,234
Earth
So I wounder dos apple have any besides iPhone that needs iOS Now days? If not then why not call iOS iPhone OS like iPhone OS 17 like back with iPhone OS 2 ?
iOS's shorter.
Though I do wonder why they don't call it iPhoneOS because whenever I talk about iPadOS, some people shorten it to iOS which then gets mistaken for the iPhone OS, causing a bunch of confusion. Making it iPhoneOS would differentiate the two OSes.
 

ethanomnom

macrumors newbie
Jun 14, 2016
14
10
It used to be called iPhoneOS way back in the day, but they changed it when going to iOS 4. It's honestly a simpler name, it's the OG, and everyone is so familiar with it now. No need to rebrand
 

17fox

macrumors 6502
Sep 6, 2022
348
549
Vienna, Austria
Just came across this thread. Why would they do that? Only to match it with other OS like iPadOS and MacOS? It doesn't make any sense
 

redbeard331

macrumors 68040
Jul 21, 2009
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