Tim Cook just curb-stomped an Apple rumour.

In December, Bloomberg echoed long-existing rumours when it claimed Apple wanted to merge iOS and MacOS apps sometime in 2018 so that developers could create a single app that'd run across both operating systems. Apple planned to let developers create apps that auto-adjusted, if you will, to the platform they’re running on - supporting touch input on an iOS device and a trackpad input on a Mac.

But, according to Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, that’s not going to happen. When asked about a merger between MacOS and iOS in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, the Apple chief said: "We don’t believe in sort of watering down one for the other. Both [The Mac and iPad] are incredible. One of the reasons that both of them are incredible is because we pushed them to do what they do well."

Cook continued:

"And if you begin to merge the two … you begin to make trade offs and compromises. So maybe the company would be more efficient at the end of the day. But that’s not what it’s about. You know it’s about giving people things that they can then use to help them change the world or express their passion or express their creativity. So this merger thing that some folks are fixated on, I don’t think that’s what users want.”

In other words, Cook is countering Bloomberg's report and dowsing old rumours. He must not think highly of Microsoft's "universal apps" approach, because he apparently thinks it just waters down the user experience. However, keep in mind Apple is expected to use its own chips in future Macs, and if future Macs and iOS devices have similar hardware, then it would make sense for that hardware to share code as well.

But who knows.