Ios

iOS (formerly iPhone OS)[6] is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its smartphones. It was unveiled in January 2007 for the first-generation iPhone,[7] launched in June 2007.

It is the operating system that powers many of the company\'s mobile devices, including the iPhone. It was also used on iPads (introduced: January 2010; availability: April 2010) until iPadOS was introduced in 2019, and on the iPod Touch devices, which were discontinued in mid-2022.[8] It is the world\'s second-most widely installed mobile operating system, after Android. It is the basis for three other operating systems made by Apple: iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS.[9]

As of December 2023, Apple\'s App Store contains more than 3.8 million iOS applications.[10] These mobile apps have collectively been downloaded more than 130 billion times.

iOS is based on macOS. Like macOS, it includes components of the Mach microkernel and FreeBSD.[11][12] It is a Unix-like operating system. Although some parts of iOS are open source under the Apple Public Source License[13] and other licenses,[14] iOS is proprietary software.[15][16]

Major versions of iOS are released annually. The current stable version, iOS 17, was released to the public on September 18, 2023.[17]