Apple tackles rivals with software upgrades including integrated apps

Apple’s annual developers’ conference in San Francisco may surprise and disappoint some for its lack of new devices the company had promised this year.

Instead the focus has been on software, and on integrating its services and those of outside partners.

Apple unveiled its iOS 8 operating system for iPhone and iPad, calling it its biggest release “since the launch of the App store”.

It also announced the latest operating system for MACs. “Yosemite” is designed to allow different Apple devices to communicate with each other – for instance allowing users to pick up on their MACs text they’d begun on their iPhones – in an age where people increasingly use multiple platforms.

Mobile apps were unveiled that pool home and health data. Rival Samsung recently announced its own mobile health-data product.

iCloud Drive, an improved internet storage app, is said to mimic the likes of Dropbox which Apple reportedly once wanted to buy.

Analysts say the software upgrades may be an attempt to keep customers and industry-watchers happy while they wait for the “next big thing”.