ios

Developer: Apple Inc

OS Family: macOS, based on Darwin (BSD)

Release Date: June 29, 2007

Platform: 

• ARMv8-A (iOS 7)

• ARMv7-A (iPhone OS 3 – iOS 10.3.4)

• ARMv6 (iPhone OS 1 – iOS 4.2.1)

User Interface:

• multi-touch

• graphical user interface

iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating

system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes the system software for iPads (predating iPadOS, which was introduced in 2019) as well as on the iPod Touch devices (which were discontinued in mid-2022). 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.

In 2005, when Steve Jobs began planning the iPhone, he had a choice to either "shrink the Mac, which would be an epic feat

of engineering, or enlarge the iPod". Jobs favored the former approach but pitted the Macintosh and iPod teams, led by Scott Forstall and Tony Fadell, respectively, against each other in an internal competition, with Forstall winning by creating iPhone OS.

The operating system was unveiled with the iPhone at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 9, 2007, and released in

June of that year. At the time of its unveiling in January, Steve Jobs claimed: "iPhone runs OS X" and runs "desktop class applications", but at the time of the iPhone's release, the operating system was renamed "iPhone OS".

In September 2007, Apple announced the iPod Touch, a redesigned iPod based on the iPhone form factor. On January 27, 2010,

Apple introduced their much-anticipated media tablet, the iPad, featuring a larger screen than the iPhone and iPod Touch, and designed for web browsing, media consumption, and reading, and offering multi-touch interaction with multimedia formats including newspapers, e-books, photos, videos, music, word processing documents, video games, and most existing iPhone apps using a 9.7-inch (25 cm) screen.

In June 2010, Apple rebranded iPhone OS as "iOS". The trademark "IOS" had been used by Cisco for over a decade for its

operating system, IOS, used on its routers. To avoid any potential lawsuit, Apple licensed the "IOS" trademark from Cisco.

On June 3, 2019, iPadOS, the branded version of iOS for iPad, was announced at the 2019 WWDC; it was launched on

September 25, 2019.

The iOS user interface is based upon direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse

pinch. Interface control elements include sliders, switches, and buttons. Internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device (one common result is the undo command) or rotating it in three dimensions (one common result is switching between portrait and landscape mode).

Game Center is an online multiplayer "social gaming network" released by Apple. It allows users to "invite friends to play a game,

start a multiplayer game through matchmaking, track their achievements, and compare their high scores on a leaderboard." iOS 5 and above adds support for profile photos. Game Center was announced during an iOS 4 preview event hosted by Apple on April 8, 2010. A preview was released to registered Apple developers in August. It was released on September 8, 2010, with iOS 4.1 on iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch 2nd generation through 4th generation. Game Center made its public debut on the iPad with iOS 4.2.1. There is no support for the iPhone 3G, original iPhone and the first-generation iPod Touch (the latter two devices did not have Game Center because they did not get iOS 4).

Wikipedia contributors. "IOS." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 2 Dec. 2023.