A list of the quirky iPhone operating system codenames used by Apple employees has been published by TiPb, showing that if Google employees spend a lot of their time thinking about dessert, Apple employees spend it thinking about skiing.

The first version of iOS, iOS 1.0, was known as ‘Alpine’, after Alpine Meadows, a resort around 200km from Apple’s Cupertino headquarters.

iOS 2.0 was known as ‘Big Bear’, a reference to California’s Big Bear lake, and iOS 3.0 was called Kirkwood, after Kirkwood Mountain.

The latest major release, iOS 5.0, is called Telluride, after a ski resort in Colorado, while the forthcoming iOS 5.1 is named Hoodoo, after a facility in Oregon.

The list was published after indie developer Steve Troughton-Smith posted most of the names on Twitter.

Apple’s Mac operating system follows a cat-themed naming policy, with codenames like Cheetah, Jaguar, Snow Leopard, and most recently Lion, while Google's Android operating systems are named alphabetically after desserts.

Here is the full list of iOS codenames:

1.0: Alpine (1.0.0 – 1.0.2: Heavenly)

1.1: Little Bear (1.1.1: Snowbird, 1.1.2: Oktoberfest)

2.0: Big Bear

2.1: Sugarbowl

2.2: Timberline

3.0: Kirkwood

3.1: Northstar

3.2: Wildcat (iPad only)

4.0: Apex

4.1: Baker

4.2: Jasper (4.2.5 – 4.2.10: Phoenix)

4.3: Durango

5.0: Telluride

5.1: Hoodoo