iOS (originally iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. and distributed exclusively for Apple hardware. It is the operating system that presently powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It is the second most popular mobile operating system in the world by sales, after Android. iPad tablets are also the second most popular, by sales, against Android since 2013, when Android tablet sales increased by 127%

Originally unveiled in 2007, for the iPhone, it has been extended to support other Apple devices such as the iPod Touch (September 2007), iPad (January 2010) and iPad Mini (November 2012). As of June 2016, Apple's App Store contained more than 2 million iOS applications, 725,000 of which are native for iPads.^[6][7] These mobile apps have collectively been downloaded more than 130 billion times.

Technical Details

iOS 9 running on an iPhone 6S

Developer	Apple Inc.
Written in	C, C++, Objective-C, Swift
OS family	Unix-like, based on Darwin (BSD), OS X
Working state	Current
Source model	Closed source
Initial release	June 29, 2007; 9 years ago
Latest release	9.3.5 (13G36) (August 25, 2016; 7 days ago) [±]
Latest preview	10.0 Developer Beta 8 (14A5346a) (August 26, 2016; 6 days ago) [±] 10.0 Public Beta 7 (14A5346a) (August 26, 2016; 6 days ago) [±]
Marketing target	Smartphones, tablet computers
Available in	40 languages[1][2][3][4]
Update method	iTunes or OTA (iOS 5 or later)
Platforms	ARMv8-A (iOS 7 and later) ARMv7-A (iPhone OS 3 and later) ARMv6 (iPhone OS 1–iOS 4.2.1; discontinued)
Kernel type	Hybrid (XNU)
Default user interface	Cocoa Touch (multi-touch, GUI)
License	Proprietary software except for open-source components
Official website	www.apple.com/ios/