iOS (iPhone OS)

iOS

iOS (previously iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system developed and distributed by Apple Inc. Originally released in 2007 for the iPhone andiPod Touch, it has been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPad and Apple TV. Unlike Microsoft's Windows CE (Windows Phone) and Google's Android, Apple does not license iOS for installation on non-Apple hardware. As of June 12, 2012, Apple's App Store contained more than 650,000 iOS applications, which have collectively been downloaded more than 30 billion times.^[3] It had a 23% share of the smartphoneoperating system units sold in the first quarter of 2012, behind only Google's Android.^[4] In June 2012, it accounted for 65% of mobile web data consumption (including use on both the iPod Touch and the iPad).^[5] At the half of 2012, there were 410 million devices activated.^[6]

The user interface of iOS is based on the concept of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interface control elements consist of sliders, switches, and buttons. The response to user input is immediate and provides a fluid interface. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such asswipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the iOS operating system and its multi-touch interface. 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 from portrait to landscape mode).

iOS is derived from OS X, with which it shares the Darwin foundation, and is therefore a Unix operating system.

In iOS, there are four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The current version of the operating system (iOS 5.1.1) dedicates 1-1.5 GB of the device's flash memory for the system partition, using roughly 800 MB of that partition (varying by model) for iOS itself.^[7]

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[edit]History

The operating system was unveiled with the iPhone at the Macworld Conference & Expo, January 9, 2007, and released in June of that year.^[8] At first, Apple marketing literature did not specify a separate name for the operating system, stating simply that the "iPhone runs OS X".^[9] Initially, third-party applications were not supported. Steve Jobs argued that developers could build web applications that "would behave like native apps on the iPhone".^[10][11] On October 17, 2007, Apple announced that a native Software Development Kit (SDK) was under development and that they planned to put it "in developers' hands in February".^[12] On March 6, 2008, Apple released the first beta, along with a new name for the operating system: "iPhone OS".

Apple had released the iPod touch, which had most of the non-phone capabilities of the iPhone. Apple also sold more than one million iPhones during the 2007 holiday season.^[13] On January 27, 2010, Apple announced the iPad, featuring a larger screen than the iPhone and iPod touch, and designed for web browsing, media consumption, and reading iBooks.^[14]

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.^[15]

[edit]Version history

Apple provides major updates to the iOS operating system approximately once a year over iTunes and since iOS version 5.0 also over the air. The next anticipated major update is iOS 6.0, to be released Sept. – Nov. 2012 and will bring over 200 new features, including Apple's new Passbook service, maps now provided by Apple, and full Facebook integration.

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