0 Microsoft’s Ballmer Declares War on Apple, Considers Smartphone

Declaring a new era for the company, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the Surface tablet will rejuvenate Microsoft as it takes on Apple and he didn’t discount the possibility of a Microsoft-made smartphone.
“We are trying to make absolutely clear we are not going to leave any space uncovered to Apple,” Ballmer told CRN following the Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto on Monday. “We are not. No space uncovered that is Apple’s.”
Ballmer stressed that Microsoft had advantages in productivity, enterprise management and manageability compared to Apple.
“But we are not going to let any piece of this [go uncontested to Apple],” Ballmer shouted. “Not the consumer cloud. Not hardware software innovation. We are not leaving any of that to Apple by itself. Not going to happen. Not on our watch.”
The new focus on Apple comes after Microsoft has embraced an end-to-end hardware and software product in Surface. The move has led to speculation that a Microsoft-created smartphone may also be in the cards. When asked, Ballmer replied: “Right now we are working real hard on the Surface. That’s the focus. That’s our core. Look, we’ll see what happens. We have good partners with Nokia, HDC in the phone space. I love what we’ve got going on with the Surface. We are going to focus on Surface and our other Windows 8 Tablet partners and see if we can go make something happen.”
The interview followed a similarly combative keynote at the Toronto event, in which Ballmer declared, “For Microsoft this is the most important year.” Though Microsoft hasn’t given a release date for Surface, the company stated on Monday that Windows 8 will be available in late October.