I only thought of this now, while reviewing some of the Game Center announcements from today's Apple media event and multitasking by phoning in my Thai food order. The iOS devices in combination with iTunes and the App Store are destroying traditional media delivery modes and generating unprecedented wealth for Apple:

• games
• apps/software
• music
• video

iTunes is, as Jobs said earlier today, the world's largest digital media store.

So why does the lowly Kindle continue to beat Apple at the eBook/digital content game?

(This is a question for you, readers. I'm not setting myself up to deliver the answer but will offer some thoughts in true Socratic form)

1. Is it because possibly the only superior payments/purchase/delivery platform to iTunes is Amazon? Amazon focused, historically, on books, and made the process as simple and intuitive and reliable as possible. Netflix, also an able competitor of Apple's, focused on movies, and achieved the same effect as Amazon -- simple, intuitive, reliable. Both also incorporated a strong recommendation engine into the mix. iTunes did the same with music. iTunes retains it leadership in music, is a challenge to Netflix and is using iPad as a battering ram against Amazon. Nonetheless, it proves again that we want to consume media, will pay for media, but want it now, want it fairly priced and want it as easy and pain-free and intuitive as possible. With my two degrees, I have still failed to master Google Checkout, for example.
2. With the Kindle, Amazon has optimized a device for media. Only, in this case, books. For all the complaints about the iPhone 4 antenna or the Safari browser, for example, or that Android offers more processing power (not true), Apple created a line-up of iOS devices (iPod, iPad, iPhone) that are *optimized* for media. That is, media review, media discovery, media purchase, media download, media management and, within DRM, media sharing. So simple, even a grandparent can use it. Was Zune, for example, ever optimized for this -- or for Windows Media, which is the ass-backwards way of doing things? The Android Marketplace is managed by Google -- who before they went over to the dark side were supposed to be organizing the world's information for our benefit -- and yet they can't even optimize their site for their customers just to buy an app! Go on, try it. I dare you.
3. With respect to books, Amazon has a brand and a history -- and a platform -- for sales. Likewise, Apple has this, though more so for music and videos and apps and games than e-books. No other competitor to iOS can say the same. (Which still shocks me. How long has Sony made smartphones? PSPs? And still no PSP smartphone that anyone on the planet might actually like? And only today have they even *announced* e-Readers that offer wireless book sales!) The smartphone wars may be a battle of platforms -- Android, Windows, Symbian, iOS. Or, perhaps we have it all wrong and it's a platform for the creation, discovery, purchase, playing and sharing of media. If so, Apple may remain King for a generation.
4. Might it be because we've all been using Amazon for so long? If so, consider how many tens of millions of children (and grandparents) use iTunes and iOS devices, more and more, to purchase and use media. Day after day, year after year. Just this weekend, my son forked over his allowance in exchange for an iTunes card. Again, this puts Apple and Amazon way out in front. As I always say, "information wants to be monetized." Why are Apple competitors making this hard!

Other reasons? Better reasons?

I love the Kindle, really. But there are some things I don't like about it and some I think I don't like about it.

See the sweet new Kindle. Lighter, faster, sleeker, more storage; oh, and a lower price. $139 (WiFi) and $189 for 3G version. Check out the picture:

Now, my brilliant plan to help teach the 1 billion boys and girls on the planet, hundreds of millions of whom with little opportunity to learn to read or write while improving America's standing around the world for generations and restoring Wall Street's good standing with America.

Give up their bonuses for one year and place an order for 1 billion new Kindles.

Wall Street bonuses total about $125 billion (or so) in a year. (I know, you're working for peanuts, sucker.) Imagine what an order for 1 billion Kindles would do. The price for even the 3G model at that volume could easily be brought down to $125.

That would put a Kindle in the hands of every child. And Amazon can pre-load these with the already free great English and American works that are currently available on the Amazon store. Improve literacy. Improve the world's children's understanding of America (and the West), embed the usage of English language around the world.

But wait, there's more! Not everyone will be able to take advantage (immediately and/or always) of the WiFi or the 3G. But let's assume at least 400 million would be able to leverage the wireless capabilities of the new Kindle. Suddenly, guys like me, and girls and boys and homemakers and unknown great writers suddenly have a platform where they can publish (at viritually no cost) their works, instantly, to nearly half a billion!

What you say, Wall Street? Want to make us love you again and do something grand?

Two features of the new iPhone 4 which did not get the love they deserved, as they were overshadowed by Face Time video calls and bright, shiny things, are iBooks and Retina Display.

iBooks is the iPhone's resident app for browsing and buying ebooks. Now, with the iPhone 4, it offers synching between your various 'iOS' devices (say, your iPhone and your iPad and your children's iPod Touch). This is a great feature that Kindle offers (enabling you to read your ebook on your iPhone or Android, for example, when out and about, and then accessing it -- from the spot you left off -- on your Kindle reader when you're home.

Kindle no longer has this advantage, thanks to iBooks.

Similarly, with the new Retina Display functioanlity on the new iPhone, text and images are radically improved.

Oh, and unlike the Kindle device, you'll always have your iPhone with you -- to call, to video chat, to play games, to browse the web. With the iPhone 4 (and especially for those families that have an iPad as well), there is simply no reason to buy a Kindle.

Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon (dot com) is worth over $11 billion.*

He loves the Kindle. He loves books. He loves running the world's best and biggest online retailer. And he strongly believes in the Kindle's long-term global mission of 'every book in 60 seconds.'

I want to help him make that happen. I also want every child in America (eventually, the world) to have access to all the great books ever written, across all epochs, all cultures, all religions. So why not just give a Kindle to every child! First, we start with the United States.

Per the US Census, there's approximately 75 million children. The cost of a Kindle is $260 but let's assume if you place an order for 75 million you can get a sweet discount. Let's assume half off; thus, $130.

75,000,000 * 130 = $9.75 billion (9,750,000,000). And, we can personalize each and every child's Kindle. Let's say engraving at that volume costs $5 a piece. So, 75 million * $5 = $375 million. In total, about $10 billion US dollars. A bit more than I have, but less than what Mr Bezos has.

But wait. What about books! That's already covered. There are already 1000s and 1000s of great works of fiction, non-fiction classics, historical tomes, bibles, biographies and more available for free. In fact, and especially if there were an order for 75 million of them, virtually every great book, as so considered by each nation, each religion, each culture, could probably quickly and at virtually no cost be made available for the Kindle.

So, Mr Bezos can make the Kindle (the device and, more importantly, the application) a likely global standard. He can provide every single American child with a library that only 80 years ago just a very few, very wealthy could afford. Each Kindle could be engraved, say: 'Enjoy your Kindle, Brian S Hall. You now have every book you ever wanted available.'

This should inspire and motivate and enlighted our nation's children. It should spur new and better and innovative methods of wireless data delivery. It will make Mr Bezos a modern-day Carnegie. Likely, it will boost Amazon's stock price and long-term prospects. Moreover, with more than 75 million Kindles in circulation, there will likely be a massive resurgence in written content -- as the Kindle can download blogs easily. Plus, this could spur new methods to monetize great content, such as the New York Times, that are finding it difficult to live in a mostly digital world.

Oh, and if it's a miserable failure. Mr Bezos will have tried something great on behalf of the nation's children, and still have a billion dollars to play with. If interested, Mr Bezos, I can help you achieve this mission.

*the stock market varies; the $11 billion is his approximate worth Q1 2010

Maybe it's because I have been an Amazon customer since before there was an iPod. Perhaps it's because I owned a Kindle before there was even an anouncement about an iPad. Or it could be because I still associate books with Amazon.

But here's the thing. I got the iPad on day 1. Use it for many things, including reading books. In fact, I prefer reading on my iPad to the Kindle. Only it has just occurred to me that I have never purchased a book from iTunes. Hell, I don't think I"ve even looked at that App Store bookshelf.

It's sort of like iTunes. I think of iTunes when I think of music. It works on all the devices I expect it to. They have my payment information already, so there's no hassles. I get the download almost instantly. If I were Amazon, since they can't compete with Apple on the iPad, focus as much resources on the digital book-buying experience as on the actual Kindle device.