By Kindly granted by Valery Marchive (LeMagIT) – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16228490

Tim Cook says Apple has no plans to merge MacOS and iOS. He says the move would water down both systems.

The comments, made in a Sydney Morning Herald interview, come after rumors of a project codenamed Marzipan that would let developers easily make apps that work for both systems.

It’s hardly surprising that Apple would be linked to the idea of a single system for both mobile devices and traditional computers. It already exists in some form with Windows 10, while the main debate with Google appears to be how it will integrate Chrome OS and Android rather than whether it will do so.

However, Cook told the newspaper that although bridging the divide between iPads and Mac computers might make Apple a more efficient company, it wouldn’t be right for the user experience. He said the reason both devices succeed:

“…is because we pushed them to do what they do well. And if you begin to merge the two… you begin to make trade offs and compromises.”

As the newspaper notes, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Marzipan reports are incorrect. Cook’s comments appear to rule out the idea of a single operating system on iPads and Macs, but there’s still some scope for merging or bringing together the code and tools used by developers.