Apple’s iOS Internal Codenames Get Leaked from iOS 1.0 to iOS 5.1

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Apple’s mobile platform has had just two names over the years, iPhone OS until iPhone OS 4.0 was announced, and iOS ever since then. After the name Apple added a number to differentiate the distinct iterations of its mobile software, from iOS 1.0 all the way up to iOS 5.0.1, with iOS 5.1 – or dare I say Hoodoo – being in beta for now.

What is Hoodoo you ask? Well, little did we know that Apple happens to have cozier names for its iOS versions and they have just been leaked:

• 1.0: Alpine (1.0.0 – 1.0.2: Heavenly)
• 1.1: Little Bear (1.1.1: Snowbird, 1.1.2: Oktoberfest)
• 2.0: Big Bear
• 2.1: Sugarbowl
• 2.2: Timberline
• 3.0: Kirkwood
• 3.1: Northstar
• 3.2: Wildcat (iPad only)
• 4.0: Apex
• 4.1: Baker
• 4.2: Jasper (4.2.5 – 4.2.10: Phoenix)
• 4.3: Durango
• 5.0: Telluride
• 5.1: Hoodoo

It appears that Apple is choosing ski resorts in California and national forests to name its iOS versions, and there doesn’t seem to be any order in that particular list. Not that order is needed since these codenames are used internally, probably only by iOS engineers. In fact, if you ask me it’s pretty difficult to make sense of all these names, and even remember them by heart, but if you’re Apple and you want to keep your iOS stuff as secret as possible, which is a well-known characteristic of the company, then these codenames begin to make a lot more sense. Talking about Baker in public becomes a lot easier, as nobody would really eavesdrop on such a conversation. Not to mention that those people using such codes must be more than familiar with them.

By comparison, Google is using sweets names for its different Android versions, and they are all arranged in alphabetical order. But what’s important to note in this case is that Google’s Android names also happen to be the public ones, which is why they’re probably a lot easier to remember.

Are you running Telluride on your iDevices or are you still on Durango on some of them – wink, wink?