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Operating systems
iOS
A short explanation of iOS in our glossary
iOS is Apple's mobile operating system which, unlike Android, is not an open operating system. This means that iOS only runs on Apple devices. The computer operating system Mac OS X serves as the basis for iOS.
The operating system was first introduced in January 2007 for the iPhone. At the time it was presented as "macOS running on the iPhone". Until 2010 the operating system was still called "iPhone OS", but since it was no longer installed only on the iPhone, Apple had to change the name.