It’s rare that Apple denies a rumor, regardless of where it was published. But when stories were posted that the company was going to become a cell phone provider, specifically an MVNO, which stands for mobile virtual network operator, something had to give.

Just in case you’re wondering, an MVNO is a service that piggybacks or leases capacity from another provider, such as MetroPCS.

Specifically, Apple made a statement to CNBC that it has not discussed nor is it planning to become an MVNO. That stops the speculation in its tracks.

Such a rumor is dangerous, since Apple has carefully crafted distribution deals with hundreds of wireless carriers around the world. If Apple were to start its own service, even though it would be buying capacity from existing carriers, that would still put the company in competition with partners with which it has no such deals.

While Apple has had no compunction in doing that with third-party app developers by duplicating key features, Apple isn’t going to bite the hands that feed it. There would be no logic in that.

Remember that the iPhone lives and dies by the carrier networks that support it. If you cannot get an iPhone to work on the cell provider you want, you will be apt to buy a different product. Remember that Verizon Wireless was heavily invested in those Droids from HTC and Motorola before they got the iPhone. That Droids didn’t do as well as they hoped certainly helped push that deal forward.

Yes, I realize wireless companies don’t exactly get the love from customers. But Apple has a pretty good deal as it is. Unlike the competition, Apple controls device support and distribution of updates. The carriers have no say in how or when the latest iOS release will be distributed, and that’s very much why iOS 8, although perceived as less popular than iOS 7, is still on 85-89% of existing devices.

In contrast, the Google Android platform is a mess. The latest operating systems get tiny shares of the user base, critical security patches are not promptly distributed, and most times they are never distributed. That’s because the handset maker and the carrier have to approve and configure Google’s updates. But these companies would rather sell you new gear than support what you already bought. This is a problem that Google has never been able to resolve.

So as it stands, Apple’s best approach to the wireless industry is to essentially leave well enough alone. That doesn’t mean Apple can’t use its influence to encourage carriers to provide better support and service. There’s very little doubt that AT&T got far better after it became the first carrier to support and sell the iPhone, although it took a while.

I’m more interested in why these rumors appear, and who might be responsible.

In this case, it was a rumor that, although it seemed logical on the face of it because of Apple’s desire to control your experience as tightly as possible, it would have been very impractical. I suppose there might have been a possibility of such a venture when Steve Jobs was at the helm, Tim Cook is more inclusive in dealing with other companies. Consider that distribution and software development deal with IBM.

At one time, IBM was the enemy. The PowerPC deal that included Motorola changed that, of course, but Apple ditched those chips after IBM and Freescale (the Motorola chip spinoff) decided to concentrate on the embedded processor market at the expense of the Mac. So it was a surprise to see Apple and IBM come together yet again.

Now the original rumor about Apple becoming a wireless carrier appeared in BusinessInsider, which has a poor track record accurately covering the company. But that didn’t stop the story from spreading far and wide. At least Apple realized the rumor was important enough, with the added consequences to Apple’s existing partnerships, to nip it in the bud.

Of course, this doesn’t mean Apple wouldn’t consider going its own way, or offer its own customized wireless service as an alternative. But even a single move in that direction would be sufficient to freak the industry. It would create an unsavory precedent, and hurt Apple as it negotiates new deals. Yes, I suppose Apple could use the threat of rolling its own to bring recalcitrant carriers in line. “Work with us, or we’ll work without you.”

Indeed, word that Apple may have used such a negotiating tactic somewhere with a recalcitrant partner could have fueled this sort of speculation. But that assumes Apple would be that extreme in attempting to finalize a deal, and that’s by no means certain. Certainly Business Insider is not naming its sources.

For now, the Apple MVNO rumor joins a host of others about possible products and services that will likely never come to be. Anyone who held their breath awaiting an Apple smart TV set must be having respiratory problems by now, though I suppose it’s possible such a product was considered, and abandoned.

The same may be true for Apple Wireless, or whatever it might have been called. Right now, though, let’s just concern ourselves with things that might really happen.

Quarter after quarter, Apple Inc. reports record sales. More iPhones are being sold than ever before, and Mac sales are rising while most PC makers are confronting lower sales. The PC industry may be on its last legs, but Apple has managed to carve out a growing share of the market segment that matters. That’s the higher profit segment. They are leaving the low-end, where profits are difficult to achieve, to the bottom feeders.

Now it’s true there are trouble spots for Apple, such as lagging iPad sales. While Apple CEO Tim Cook puts a positive spin on the situation, it’s fair to wonder whether it’s just a spin, and what Apple hopes to accomplish Obviously improving iPad multitasking in iOS 9 will make the device more useful for productivity, and that, along with the IBM deal, may indeed improve sales. And don’t forget the delayed upgrade cycle. Maybe this year will be the charm.

The Apple Watch is a question mark. Without actual sales figures, the rumors and widely varying industry analyst estimates dominate the news cycles. Nobody knows Apple’s internal targets, but it’s easy to take the lowest numbers and suggest it’s not doing so well. This despite Apple’s statement that sales for the first nine weeks overshot those of the iPhone and iPad during their first nine weeks on sale. Isn’t that supposed to a good thing?

But the excuse that Apple wants to keep the details out of the hands of the competition doesn’t wash. If they are skilled at targeting the sales and production channels, they already have a pretty good idea.

Now a recent story about Apple’s alleged predicament used the standard nonsense about non-existent scandals to make a point, among other things. So the so-called “bendgate” issue, where the iPhone 6 Plus was supposedly more prone to bending in your back pocket than the competition, was accepted as a fact. But Apple never admitted to a problem, and third-party tests from Consumer Reports magazine and SquareTrade, an extended warranty provider, indicated Apple’s phablet performed acceptably when subjected to severe abuse.

Still, there’s an unconfirmed report that Apple will use a stronger aluminum alloy for the next iPhone, referred to as the 6s and 6s Plus, so it will be even less susceptible to damage. Regardless of the facts, to some tech pundits and other columnists, it doesn’t matter.

Of course, when a claim is partly accurate, it’s easy to extend the claim to encompass more than it should. So there’s the somewhat ragged condition of OS X Yosemite. An irritating networking bug, which resulted in unstable Wi-Fi connections and other ills, did indeed cause trouble for some Mac users (but not me). It was finally fixed by replacing a new networking component with the old one in the recent 10.10.4 update. That appears to have cleaned things up for the most part; it appears that a 10.10.5 update is now being tested by developers and public beta testers.

However, the critical article in question also made a big deal about alleged serious bugs with OS X El Capitan. Now I’m not mentioning the source, since it doesn’t deserve the publicity. But citing problems with an operating system that’s still in beta condition simply doesn’t make sense. How anyone can take this seriously boggles the mind, but it’s an example of how facts and logic can be twisted to prove a point.

This doesn’t mean that everything is necessarily hunky dory at Apple. There are still arguments that Apple’s quality control, and the ease-of-use factor, have taken a step backwards since Tim Cook took over as CEO. That’s part of the “Cook is bad” meme that’s been perpetuated by some Apple critics.

To be sure, Apple has lots of things going on, and first releases of anything are apt to be buggy. Apple is not free of such problems, but you could go back to the early days of the Mac to find OS releases quickly replaced by maintenance updates because things went badly.

However, Apple is doing so much more these days, and getting far more attention, that any possible slip up, even if it’s nothing unusual, gets extra coverage. But what about the first release of Windows 10, which is reportedly in fairly shaky condition? The excuse is that Microsoft promised rolling updates, so things would get fixed. But is that an excuse for a release that wasn’t ready for anyone beyond power users and early adopters?

Consider an article at BetaNews entitled “Windows 10 will be a great operating system — when it’s finished.” The subject matter is implicit in the title, that Microsoft let that beast out prematurely. Far too much is wrong with Windows 10 to recommend it, certainly not for business use. It’s fair to suggest that the stench of Windows 8, and the poor reception by the public, might have forced Microsoft to make moves that it might otherwise have done with more precision.

There was also the initial rollout, such as it was, for Android 5 Lollipop, which was quickly replaced with a working update to fix some serious bugs. And I haven’t even gotten to the well-known and very serious security lapses with Android that, for the most part, will never be fixed on most handsets running Google’s OS. The most recent problems have gotten some publicity, but tech coverage is still heavily dominated by the latest scuttlebutt about Apple. As usual.

The first official release of Windows 10 went live for some Microsoft customers on July 29th. I say some, because Microsoft is making the upgrade available for download in stages. The first group includes those who signed up for the Windows Insider program and got a crack at the beta versions. The rest will be notified when the update is available for them to retrieve.

I’m not certain why Microsoft is doing it this way except, perhaps, to reduce the load on their server farms. Still, they claim 14 million downloaded Windows 10 on the very first day. That might seem quite impressive to Mac users, but remember that there are an estimated 1.5 billion devices on which Windows is installed. The last figures for the Mac that I read about were closer to the 70-75 million range. So while Apple is growing share, there are lots of Windows users to convert before the PC era is over and it no longer matters.

In short, Microsoft’s initial download figure isn’t really that high. I’m more interested in seeing when it hits the 100 million level.

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So in recent days, more and more tech pundits have published comparisons between OS X El Capitan, still a ways from release, and Windows 10, which arrived this week for download and bundled with some new PCs. Looking over these two, which actually derive an idea or two from one another, you can see where Apple and Microsoft have seriously diverged in how they approach platforms.

For years, Microsoft has touted Windows Everywhere, meaning that, whatever device you use, you’d have access to a version of Windows. This would extend to point-of-sale devices and other gear that doesn’t necessarily strike you as related to a PC, though they are, in fact, computers. Windows 10 takes that integration attempt a step further by building an operating system meant to work on a host of devices. But there will be touch-centric and mouse-centric interface changes as needed.

So when you use a convertible PC note-book, one that can act as a tablet with a removable or rotating display, and one that works as a regular PC, there’s a Continuum mode. It can be made automatic or require manual switching, but it will deliver the right input scheme for your setup.

In passing, I wonder how some people might react if they don’t get the memo, or OK everything and have Windows 10 switch modes when they didn’t expect it. I also gather hardware makers will also have to adjust their drivers to allow for the smoothest switch.

The other problem is the so-called Universal app, which means a developer creates one version that works on any Windows 10 device. The problem is that a Universal app is also “fat,” meaning it has the binaries for both mouse and touch versions and is thus potentially much larger. This could become a serious problem for a note-book with a small SSD, quite common, or a smartphone without lots of storage. Contrast that to Apple’s approach in iOS 9, where the OS downloads will be smaller, and you’ll download apps stripped of the code you don’t need on your device.

Apple also does not believe that you can integrate a toaster oven with a refrigerator, to use Tim Cook’s famously exaggerated example. Thus Mac note-books do not have touchscreens, and the iPad, although keyboards are available, is primarily touch-centric. The operating systems may share some code and features, but they are optimized for the different user conditions. Integrating, to Apple, would remain a poor compromise, and it’s an open question whether putting Windows 10 everywhere is actually going to work.

Indeed, it remains to be seen whether those convertible PCs will succeed in a declining market where Apple is one of the few companies to grow sales and market share. Right now you pay a premium to have a note-book that can double as a touch-based tablet, and the sales case has yet to be proven. This fall, prices are expected to decline for such gear, but, again, that doesn’t mean people want all-in-one devices of this sort, as opposed to a computer with an integrated display, such as the iMac.

So the features touted by PC fans as superior to OS X are partly related to philosophy. You don’t need Continuum, but Apple has Continuity, providing for some level of integration among your Apple devices. The operating systems and the way you interact are different but you can still switch rom one to the other more smoothly. Well, mostly, because Continuity, and the Handoff feature can be buggy. One hopes things will be better when El Capitan is finalized.

The other difference is Cortana. Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, remains on mobile gear, because Apple believes these are more personal devices that are a better fit for such a feature. Microsoft, wanting to have the same things everywhere, more or less, brought Cortana to the Windows 10 PC, bugs and all.

While it may be suitable to some — and I expect home users will benefit most from Cortana — early reviews indicate “she” is buggy, and voice recognition is apt to cut off with a response before you’re finished. A famous example is asking the name of the President of the United States. Cortana may cut off before “States,” and thus identify the President of United Airlines instead. Surely that and other recognition glitches will be fixed before long, but Cortana is something Microsoft has had for a while, starting with the Xbox gaming console. So it’s hard to excuse problems of this sort.

Apple could have released a version of Siri for OS X, but hasn’t done so. The use case is questionable, whereas Microsoft has no compunctions about throwing something out there for those who might want to use it. Or maybe just for bragging rights.

That said, it’s troubling that Windows 10 appears to have shipped with loads of bugs, not just in Cortana, but in Mail and other apps. While you expect glitches early on, and OS X Yosemite wasn’t immune by a long shot, there appears to be too much going on that’s not so pleasant. It may be that Microsoft ran headlong into getting Windows 10 out for back-to-school PC sales, hoping the worst glitches would be fixed by fall.

OS X El Capitan will probably appear no later than late October, and one hopes the worst bugs will be eradicated. But doing any comparison is a little unfair right now, particularly for features not fully baked. One thing is certain, however, and that is that the next OS X is not just a bug fix update. There are lots of under-the-hood changes that promise better performance and security. The feature enhancements promise to improve productivity. So far most of what Microsoft is offering with Windows 10, aside from a couple of controversial features, is the removal of the Windows 8/8.1 excesses, and a few features “borrowed” from the Mac to improve multitasking.

But Windows 10, absent the bugs, performs well enough, and the Microsoft Edge browser is good enough that the company ought to consider a Mac version. That’s saying a lot, but the enterprise won’t switch until they know everything’s all right, and that may take a year or two to happen. Meantime, PC sales will continue to decline.