Apple announced the latest version of its iOS operating system for mobile devices, with Tim Cook, the company’s CEO, describing it as “the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone”.

The most obvious change in iOS7 is a refreshed user interface, which is said to offer “subtle motion, and elegant colour palette and distinct, functional layers that make it feel more alive”.

But the company also said that it will be “instantly familiar” to existing iOS device users, rather than being a complete break from the past.

As expected, some of the existing apps have lost their “skeuomorphic” design, where the design reflects related real-world objects.

Speaking at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference yesterday, Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering, quipped: “We just completely ran out of green felt, and wood as well.”

Among the new features introduced by the update is the new Control Center, which can be accessed by swiping up from the bottom of the screen in any app.

Control Center provides access to commonly used settings, such as Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Do Not Disturb, as well as enabling users to adjust screen brightness or pause or play music.

The update also introduces AirDrop, which is a way of sharing content between iOS users via Wi-Fi direct. Transfers do not require any set-up and are fully encrypted, and can be made on a one-to-many basis.

Apple has also updated its camera software, adding the ability to add filters to images at the time of capture. It also adds a square option to the standard photo and panoramic formats, and the image library has been updated to organise pictures and videos based on time and location.

The Safari browser now features a redesigned user interface, adding support for full screen browsing, and with a new view for bookmarks and Safari tabs. Siri has also been updated to offer “new male and female voices”, and has been integrated with Twitter, Wikipedia and Bing.

And the Music app has also been updated and sees the introduction of iTunes Radio, an internet radio service with more than 200 stations.

iOS7 will be available “this fall” for iPhone 4 and later models, as well as the iPad 2 and later versions, although not all features will be available across all products – AirDrop, for example, will be limited to later devices for hardware reasons.