What are iOS devices?


This is a list and comparison of iOS devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. That run a Unix-like operating system named iOS and iPad OS.

The devices incorporate the iPhone, the iPod Touch which, in design, is much like the iPhone, however, has no cellular radio or alternative cell phone hardware, and the iPad. All three devices operate as digital sound and mobile media players along with Web clients.

The Apple TV, which operates tvOS, is a set-top box for streaming media from local sources and also from specific internet services into a connected television set, and does not have any display of its own.

Approximately 1.35 billion iOS devices have been sold worldwide as of March 2015. As of September 2018, about 2 billion iOS devices are sold globally.

The operating system on iOS devices may be upgraded through iTunes or Finder (from macOS Catalina), or on iOS 5 or later, using over-the-air (OTA) updates. A major version of iOS tends to be published whenever a new kind of iPhone is found, (usually once a year) with minor changes during the year as needed.

All upgrades are free to iOS devices (although iPod Touch users were formerly required to pay for the update). Apple updates its products’ hardware periodically (roughly annual ).