Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman disclosed in the "Power On" newsletter released on Sunday that Apple has started the development of operating system updates for 2027, including iOS 28, iPadOS 28, macOS 28 and other platform systems. According to reports, Apple’s software engineering team has now entered the stage of creating specific functions, applications and improvement projects for these systems, which means that related research and development has moved from planning to actual implementation.
As an important operating system and hardware supplier, Apple must plan and polish products long in advance to ensure stability and experience when it is officially released. The report pointed out that Apple usually has relatively long-term product planning for hardware products such as iPhone and Mac, and at the software level, it also takes many years from project establishment, development to final external release. This long-term rhythm also determines that Apple must advance the development of subsequent versions in parallel while the existing system is still being iterated and maintained.
Gurman quoted sources as saying that Apple's software engineering team is currently focusing on the development of individual features, applications and system enhancements. However, at this stage, these modular achievements have not yet been integrated into a complete and unified operating system version, and it will still take time for the overall system to take shape. Since it is still about a year away from its debut at the 2027 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2027), Apple still has plenty of room for maneuver in terms of system integration and polishing.
The report also mentioned that iOS 28 and iPadOS 28 are codenamed "Bell" within Apple, while macOS 28 is codenamed "Poppy" internally. For internal communications and cultural reasons, some employees merged the two codenames into "Boppy" to refer to a full set of operating system updates in 2027. This type of codename combination is not the first time this has occurred within Apple, and to some extent it reflects the team's internal understanding and relaxed atmosphere.
Gurman pointed out that in the previous generation product cycle, Apple adopted a similar approach for the generation of systems before 2027. At that time, the internal codename of iOS 27 and iPadOS 27 was "Rave", while the internal codename of macOS 27 was "Fizz", and employees created the nickname "Rizz" to combine the two. Similar to the merger of "Bell" and "Poppy" to form "Boppy", these code name combinations were used internally to refer verbally to the entire system update plan for that year.
At present, Apple has not made a public comment on the above content. The relevant information mainly comes from Bloomberg communications and people familiar with the matter. Considering that Apple has maintained a "multi-generation parallel development" rhythm for many years, it is generally believed that it is not surprising that it has started the development of iOS 28, iPadOS 28 and macOS 28 in advance. In the next year, the industry expects that more details about "Bell", "Poppy" and "Boppy" will gradually emerge through developer channels and follow-up reports.