There’s an interesting new rumor surrounding Apple. For the sake of consistency, they are rumored to adjust the numbering of the operating systems. While today they’re on version 18 for iOS, iPadOS, and tvOS, they’re on macOS 15, watchOS 11, and visionOS 2. So technically, unifying the OS numbers makes sense. It also makes sense that they’re rumored to jump to a year based version number. However, what doesn’t really make sense is the numbering itself because they’re rumored to use the two digit year. So it’ll be iOS 26. Which is bloated as it is but it will become even more ridiculous as the years advance. So my suggestion to Apple is this:

• Adopt a decade.year numbering system for the OS so rather than jumping to iOS 26 recalibrate to iOS 2.6. That way, in 2035, iOS or MacOS 3.5 will sound much less ridiculous than iOS 35.
• Adopt the same nomenclature for hardware but use the entire year so for example, iPhone Pro Max 2026, iPad Pro 2026, etc.

By doing this, Apple can avoid number bloat and still maintain cognitive consistency. That way, in 2031, a user can have an iPhone Pro Max 2029 running iOS 3.1 rather than an iPhone Pro Max 29 running iOS 31. By using the full year, Apple can then also skip hardware release years if it comes down to it without cognitive disconnect (e.g., going from MacBook Air 2027 to MacBook Air 2029 rather than MacBook Air 29 skipping MacBook Air 28).