Archive chapter
What changed across Apple in 2019: ecosystem turning points, hardware launches, software releases and the support boundaries that moved with them.
Historical context
Curated, source-backed moments that explain how products, software and technologies changed direction together. These records add context without duplicating the canonical product or OS facts below.
Software history
Verified public releases in 2019, including major-version milestones, maintenance updates and products that lost major-version support.
iPhone OS / iOS
17 public releases in this major line · 16 point updates
A beautiful new dark color scheme that delivers a great viewing experience especially in low-light environments
An all-new Photos tab with a curated view of your library making it easy to find, relive, and share your photos and videos
A private way to sign in to participating apps and websites with the Apple ID you already have
Unlimited access to groundbreaking new games with one subscription, no ads or additional purchases
An all-new map rolling out in the US featuring broader road coverage, improved address precision, better support for pedestrians, and more detailed land cover
All-new design with more powerful and intelligent ways to create and organize reminders
More natural Siri voice, particularly while speaking longer phrases
New Memoji customization options including new hairstyles, headwear, makeup, and piercings
All-new CarPlay Dashboard with your tunes, turns, and smart Siri suggestions on one screen
People Occlusion for apps to place virtual objects naturally in front or behind people using iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
Major-version support ended
watchOS
14 public releases in this major line · 13 point updates
New Cycle Tracking app to log information about your menstrual cycle including flow level, symptoms, and spotting
View the decibel levels in your environment in real time with the new Noise app
Record Voice Memos using Apple Watch
Sync audiobooks from Apple Books on your iPhone to Apple Watch
Discover and install apps for Apple Watch with the new App Store
Track your Activity trends in the Activity app on iPhone
New current elevation metric for Outdoor Run, Outdoor Walk, Outdoor Cycle and Hiking workouts. Available on Apple Watch Series 2 and later
Identify the song playing around you with Shazam—get song and artist information and the ability to add to your Apple Music library
Numerals Mono and Numerals Duo—Digital faces available in Arabic, Arabic Indic, Roman numerals and Devanagari
New Calculator app with the ability to calculate tips and split the check
iPadOS
16 public releases in this major line · 15 point updates
Today Widgets on the Home screen for at-a-glance information
Slide Over with support for multiple apps to access your favorite apps from anywhere in iPadOS and quickly switch between them
Lower latency with Apple Pencil, making it feel more responsive than ever
Scrollbar scrubbing to directly drag the scrollbar for quickly navigating long documents, web pages, and email conversations
New floating keyboard leaving more room for your content—drag it anywhere you like
Custom fonts are available from the App Store for use in your favorite apps
External drives supported in Files to access and manage files on a USB drive, SD card, or hard drive
Desktop-class browsing in Safari with websites automatically optimized for the large Multi-Touch display iPad display
A beautiful new dark color scheme that delivers a great viewing experience especially in low-light environments
An all-new Photos tab with a curated view of your library making it easy to find, relive, and share your photos and videos
Apple TV Software / tvOS
8 public releases in this major line · 7 point updates
Home screen: Watch full screen previews for new movies, hit music, top-rated games, and more as you highlight apps on the top row. Swipe up to hear audio and make selections.
Multiuser: Get a tailored Apple TV experience with your own Up Next list in the Apple TV app, playlists in Apple Music, and more. Invite users with your Apple TV or the Home app to get started.
Control Center: Hold the TV button on the Siri Remote to switch users, change audio sources, access music, and put Apple TV to sleep.
Apple Arcade: Enjoy unlimited access to 100+ new games on your Apple devices. From immersive new worlds to earth-shattering sound effects, the experience is all too real on your big screen with Apple TV.
Game controllers: Play games with popular controllers, like PlayStation DualShock 4 and the Xbox Wireless Controller with Bluetooth.
Apple Music: Listen to your favorite music with perfectly timed lyrics. Swipe through the lyrics and jump to any verse in the song with a click.
Screen savers: Enjoy stunning new videos of underwater seascapes from bodies of water all over the globe. Tap the Siri Remote to see the location, or swipe to see the next one.
Mac OS X / OS X / macOS
8 public releases in this major line · 7 point updates
Three focused media apps replaced the long-running all-in-one iTunes application on Mac.
Sidecar let an iPad act as an extended Mac display and drawing surface with Apple Pencil.
Voice Control enabled comprehensive Mac navigation and text editing through speech.
Catalina brought Screen Time to Mac and expanded protections around applications and user data.
Public release history
56 public point updates are recorded for this year. Expand a platform to inspect the version-by-version release dates.
Hardware releases
Filters below affect the hardware list only. Product relationships and generation deltas still come from the canonical lineage catalog.
12 catalogued products
iPad · Air
Revives the iPad Air brand by bringing a 10.5-inch laminated True Tone display, Smart Keyboard support, and A12 Bionic to the mid-tier price point.
2224 x 1668 resolution at 264 ppi with P3 wide color, True Tone technology, full lamination, and anti-reflective coating (500 nits brightness).
Brings low-latency stylus drawing and note-taking to the Air series.
Side three-pin contact interface enabling Apple Smart Keyboard attachment without Bluetooth pairing or charging.
7nm SoC with 6-core CPU (2 performance cores, 4 efficiency cores), 4-core GPU, and Apple's 8-core Neural Engine.
Cellular support expanded up to 28 LTE bands with Gigabit-class throughput.
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Display grows from 9.7 inches (iPad Air 2) to 10.5 inches with narrower side bezels.
Upgraded from 1.2MP to 7MP FaceTime HD camera with 1080p HD video recording.
70% boost in CPU performance and 2x graphics capability compared to iPad Air 2.
64GB and 256GB capacities.
Superseded by 64-bit A12 Bionic architecture.
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Embedded in physical Home button.
For charging and peripheral connection.
Audio port preserved.
f/2.4 aperture with 1080p HD video recording.
6.1 mm thin, weighing 456 g (Wi-Fi) / 464 g (Cellular).
Powered by a 30.2-watt-hour battery.
iPad · mini
Revitalizes Apple's ultra-compact tablet with A12 Bionic performance, a True Tone wide-color display, and Apple Pencil support in the classic 7.9-inch form factor.
Enables pressure-sensitive, low-latency drawing and handwriting on a 7.9-inch canvas.
Dynamically shifts display white balance to match ambient color temperature.
Delivers 25% more color coverage than sRGB on the 7.9-inch panel with 500 nits brightness (25% brighter than iPad mini 4).
7nm architecture with 6-core CPU, 4-core GPU, and 8-core Neural Engine; provides 3x faster CPU and 9x faster graphics performance over iPad mini 4.
Supports up to 28 LTE bands for worldwide connectivity.
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Replaces 1.2MP sensor with 7MP FaceTime HD camera with f/2.2 aperture and 1080p HD video recording.
Available in 64GB and 256GB capacities.
Completely retired after powering iPad mini 4 since 2015.
2048 x 1536 resolution at 326 ppi (highest pixel density among non-Liquid Retina iPads), fully laminated with anti-reflective coating.
Integrated into physical Home button.
For charging and peripheral connectivity.
Audio port preserved.
f/2.4 aperture with 1080p HD video recording.
6.1 mm thin and 300.5 g (Wi-Fi) / 308.2 g (Cellular).
Powered by a 19.1-watt-hour battery.
AirPods · Standard
Apple H1 silicon brings hands-free "Hey Siri", 50% more talk time, faster device switching, and Qi wireless charging options to the classic open-ear form factor.
Custom silicon engineered specifically for headphones featuring custom audio architecture, delivering up to 2x faster switching between active devices and up to 30 percent lower gaming audio latency.
Voice-activated Siri interaction without tapping the earbud, enabled by real-time speech processing on the H1 chip.
Optional Qi-compatible wireless charging case with front-facing LED charging indicator, offered as a bundled configuration or standalone purchase.
Increased by 50 percent to up to 3 hours of talk time on a single charge (compared to 2 hours on the first generation).
Upgraded from Bluetooth 4.2 to Bluetooth 5.0 for improved connection stability and efficiency.
Retained the non-occluding acoustic form factor, dual optical in-ear detection sensors, speech and motion accelerometers, and 5-hour continuous listening time.
iPod · touch
A10 Fusion gives the final iPod touch AR, Group FaceTime and modern iOS performance before the iPod line ends.
A10 Fusion chip.
AR experiences and Group FaceTime support.
256GB storage tier.
The 4-inch home-button iPod touch form factor remains.
Mac · Mac Pro
The 2019 Mac Pro returned the professional desktop to a modular tower architecture with PCIe expansion and configurable Xeon-based performance.
A modular stainless-steel frame and aluminum housing with PCI Express expansion.
Intel Xeon W processor configurations up to 28 cores and up to 1.5TB memory.
Apple MPX Module graphics expansion and the Afterburner accelerator card option.
A new thermal design with three front impellers and a blower.
Apple Watch · Series
The Always-On Retina display transforms Apple Watch into a glanceable, full-time timepiece while preserving 18-hour all-day battery life.
An innovative display architecture combining a low-temperature polysilicon and oxide display (LTPO), ultra-low power display driver (DDIC), efficient power management IC, and ambient light sensor dynamically reduces refresh rate from 60Hz to 1Hz when the wrist is down, keeping time and complications visible at all times.
A hardware magnetometer enables heading, incline, latitude, longitude, and elevation tracking within the new Compass app and Maps, and provides direction complications for watch faces.
GPS + Cellular models can contact local emergency services across more than 150 countries even without an active cellular service plan or paired iPhone nearby, integrating directly with fall detection.
(refinement): Apple Watch Edition introduced brushed natural and space black (diamond-like coating) titanium finishes boasting a high strength-to-weight ratio, alongside the return of white ceramic.
(refinement): Apple introduced Apple Watch Studio in retail and online stores, allowing customers to mix and match case finishes and bands at purchase rather than forcing pre-packaged pairings.
Storage expanded from 16GB on Series 4 to 32GB across all models to accommodate podcasts, music, audiobooks, and on-device apps.
Upgraded SiP integrating the 64-bit dual-core processor with the new display power controller and magnetometer.
(refinement): For the first time, aluminum models were fabricated entirely from 100% recycled 7000-series aerospace-grade aluminum.
Apple immediately ceased official sales of Series 4 upon Series 5's introduction, keeping the older Series 3 as the entry model.
Maintained the baseline 18-hour daily runtime rating despite moving from an off-wrist black display to an illuminated Always-On screen.
Retained the electrical heart sensor (ECG app) and second-generation optical heart sensor introduced on Series 4.
Retained the physical Force Touch sensor gasket beneath the OLED panel (the final flagship hardware generation with Force Touch support).
Maintained 40mm and 44mm case dimensions, digital crown with haptic feedback, and band slot compatibility with all prior Apple Watch generations.
iPad · Standard
Retires the historic 9.7-inch screen size in favor of a 10.2-inch Retina display and introduces Smart Keyboard support to the $329 entry-level tier.
Replaces the 9.7-inch panel that had anchored the base iPad since 2010; features 2160 x 1620 resolution at 264 ppi with nearly 3.5 million pixels (500 nits brightness).
Side contact interface allows attaching the full-size Apple Smart Keyboard without Bluetooth pairing or charging.
First iPad enclosure manufactured from 100% recycled aluminum alloy.
Cellular model upgraded to support Gigabit-class LTE with up to 27 LTE bands.
Height increased from 240 mm to 250.6 mm, width from 169.5 mm to 174.1 mm (matching the outer footprint of iPad Air 3, though retaining a 7.5 mm thickness).
Increased from 469 g to 483 g (Wi-Fi) / 493 g (Cellular).
9.7-inch display retired from the Apple tablet lineup after 9.5 years.
64-bit architecture with embedded M10 coprocessor.
Carried forward from the 6th generation.
Fingerprint sensor embedded in physical Home button.
Lightning connector and 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack.
8MP rear camera (f/2.4) and 1.2MP FaceTime HD front camera.
32GB and 128GB capacities starting at $329 (US) / $299 (US) for education.
Delivered by a 32.4-watt-hour battery.
iPhone · Standard
Dual cameras and Night mode turn computational photography into the standard iPhone story.
The standard tier gained an Ultra Wide camera and a broader field of view.
Low-light computational photography became a built-in capture mode.
iPhone · Pro
The first Pro-branded iPhone pairs Super Retina XDR with a triple-camera system.
Apple formalized a Pro iPhone tier around display, camera, and battery capability.
Ultra Wide joined Wide and Telephoto cameras in the Pro system.
The largest OLED iPhone inherited the full triple-camera Pro positioning.
AirPods · Pro
Active Noise Cancellation, Transparency mode, and custom-fit silicone tips establish a professional in-ear tier in the AirPods lineup.
Three sizes (small, medium, large) of soft, flexible silicone ear tips that click into place, accompanied by an Ear Tip Fit Test using internal microphones to verify acoustic seal.
Innovative acoustic vent prevents the ear canal vacuum pressure sensation typical of closed in-ear designs.
Dual-microphone architecture (outward-facing and inward-facing) adapting audio signals 200 times per second for continuous background noise cancellation.
Allows ambient sound to pass through naturally while audio plays, letting users hear surrounding traffic, announcements, or conversations.
Automatically tunes the low- and mid-frequencies of the music to the specific contours of each user's ear.
Capacitive force sensor embedded in the shortened stem enables easy switching between ANC and Transparency mode and controlling playback with a squeeze.
Qi-compatible wireless charging case included as standard at $249.
Formal IPX4 rating for non-water sports and workouts across earbuds and case.
Mac · MacBook Pro
The 16-inch MacBook Pro introduced a larger Retina display and Magic Keyboard while consolidating Apple’s portable professional notebook around a new size.
A 16-inch Retina display with a 3072-by-1920 resolution.
Magic Keyboard with a physical Escape key and inverted-T arrow keys.
Six-speaker sound system and studio-quality three-microphone array.
New thermal architecture supporting up to an eight-core Intel Core processor and Radeon Pro 5000M graphics.