Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said in an interview late Thursday that Apple is unlikely to ever control the smartphone market the way it does portable media players. The executive argued that the sheer scale of the phone market, which could amount to almost 1.3 billion devices this year, made it impossible for any one hardware company to take control. Apple's lead in media players was possible only because it participated in a niche, he added, and the company has usually never had more than a niche position in larger markets.
