Steve Ballmer sent an email to Microsoft employees this week in which he acknowledged the success of Apple — and what the Redmond giant needs to do in order to better compete. “Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises,” he wrote. “We’ll do the same with phones–providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences.” For the full story, head over to jkOnTheRun.