Microsoft is looking to fight Apple like they've never fought before, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admits that Microsoft and select partners ceded some of the boundary between hardware and software to Apple in the years gone by, but with Surface, that's a thing of the past.

During an interview with CRN, Ballmer highlights that Microsoft has advantages in productivity, enterprise management and manageability, but Microsoft aren't prepared to let things like the consumer cloud and hardware/software innovation go uncontested to Apple, Ballmer says "not going to happen, not on our watch".

One interesting thing Ballmer let slip during the interview, is that he didn't deny that Microsoft have thought of making their own smartphone hardware. When asked about the subject, Ballmer said right now, they are working extremely hard on Surface. Surface is Microsoft's sole focus and core right now. Ballmer added:

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.