Apple wants to make the iPhone into a hub for consumers’ health information from a variety of apps, as it prepares the ground for the expected launch of its iWatch wearable device.

A new platform called HealthKit was the centrepiece of a swath of new features in iOS 8, the next version of the iPhone and iPad’s operating system, and Mac OS X, its desktop software that is increasingly tied to iOS, unveiled by Apple at its worldwide developers conference in San Francisco on Monday.

Apple’s new offerings included a whole new programming language, Swift; the ability to write apps that tap into the iPhone’s keyboard, TouchID fingerprint sensor and other core elements of iOS; and CloudKit, a suite of web services in direct competition with those from Google, Amazon and Microsoft.