Apple iOS: 10 Things You Might Not Have Known

What's In a Name?

Given the speed of technological innovation, it's easy to forget sometimes that "iOS" is a relatively recent term. Until June 2010, Apple referred to its mobile operating system as "iPhone OS."

Best Seller

In 2011, Apple sold more iOS devices (156 million) than all the Macs it had sold in 28 years (122 million). 

Developer Starts

According to mobile market analytics specialist Flurry, new application-development projects for iOS outnumber those for Android by approximately three-to-one.

Multitasking

Multitasking only became a major feature with iOS 4.

App Store

Apple's App Store for iOS now features some 550,000 apps.

Trademark

In order to use the name "iOS," Apple had to reach an agreement with Cisco, which already owned the trademark. Apple and Cisco had also battled for the rights to the term "iPhone."

Billions Downloaded

By March 2012, Apple could boast that iOS users had downloaded some 25 billion apps from the App Store. Chunli Fu of Qingdao, China, downloaded that 25 billionth app, the free version of "Where's My Water?"

Developers

Also by March 2012, developers had made some $4 billion from the App Store (according to Apple, at least).

Jailbreaking

Although Apple pushed back hard against people "jailbreaking" their iPhones, the U.S. Copyright Office and the Library of Congress decided in July 2010 that the practice was not prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

iOS 6

There are rumors that iOS 6 could appear this summer, ahead of the release of Apple's next iPhone.