[al_borland]

I’m a fan of year based versioning, but this change is likely a response to Samsung doing this, which makes their Galaxy S25 sound newer and more advanced than the iPhone 16.

It’s a silly game to play. Firefox did something similar. Their versioning moved famously slow, then all the sudden they started releasing major versions every other week until their version numbering was compatible to Chrome’s version.

[int_19h]

I think it's far more likely that they're doing it to reflect the fact that their products are essentially updated in synchronized waves, and you have to update all at once to get the best out of it (i.e. across macOS/iOS/watchOS/tvOS, if you own all those devices). This way each wave gets an obvious number so you know what matches what.