Golden Master

A golden master build (GM) is typically the final build of a piece of software in the beta stages for developers. Typically, it is the final build before a major release, however, there have been a few exceptions.

With iOS/iPadOS 14.2, Apple stopped using Golden Master and was replaced by Release Candidate.

iOS/iPadOS

 * 2.0 -  (  was release)
 * 3.0 -
 * 4.0 -  (release had no Game Center, but contained same build number)
 * 4.1 -
 * 4.2 - ,
 * 4.2.1 -  (iPhone 3GS received   for release)
 * 4.3 -
 * 5.0 -
 * 5.1 -
 * 6.0 -
 * 7.0 -
 * 7.1 -,   and
 * 8.0 -  and
 * 9.0 -  and
 * 10.0.1 -
 * 11.0 -
 * 12.0 -
 * 13.0 -
 * 13.5 -
 * 13.6 -  (renamed to beta 4 later in the day but is a GM build)
 * 14.0 -
 * 14.1 -

tvOS

 * 9.0 -
 * 10.0 -
 * 11.0 -
 * 12.0 -
 * 13.4.5 -
 * 13.4.8 -  (renamed to beta 4 later in the day but is a GM build)
 * 14.0 -

watchOS

 * 2.0 -
 * 3.0 -
 * 4.0 -
 * 4.1 -
 * 5.0 -
 * 6.0 -
 * 6.2.8 -  (renamed to beta 4 later in the day but is a GM build)
 * 7.0 -