He who controls the screen controls the universe! The grand plans of Steve Jobs reach far beyond the smartphone wars.

Got a child, get them a iPod Touch. Need a phone, get an iPhone. Want a netbook? Don't be dumb, buy an iPad. Want a cool device to interact with your customers? Definitely, an iPad. Need a computer? Buy a MacBook? What, gotta have a PC? Buy a MacBook, I said. Kindle just doesn't do enough? iPod or iPhone or iPad should satisfy you.

Long day at work? Fire up the Apple TV. Want to video chat? Apple's got you covered.

I've told you before, it's all about the screens. Could this actually be true? Could this be Apple's end game? Control over every screen -- the media player, the smartphone, the computer, the television. Each and every one? While Google tries to spread Android to feed its advertising cow, and Microsoft continues to think of smartphones as PCs inside a smaller form factor, perhaps Steve Jobs and Apple have some larger end-game in mind:

everything we do and write and read and play and surf and view and share and manipulate.

To achieve this grand plan, they need a highly polished, always-ready, super-intuitive, highly visual touch-based interface. Which they have. They need devices for home and work and on the go, at multiple price points. Check. They need a system for pushing all manner of content to each device: iTunes, App Store, big new mobile data facility. Done. Oh, and they should all talk with one another -- from iPod to iPad, and iPhone and Mac. Got it.

And they get one step closer to control of our screens.

Think of the inordinate amount of time Steve Jobs has spent talking up Apple's "retina display" screens. Perhaps it's not to ensure a super-great gaming experience, as with the new Infinity Blade. Nor is it to beat the Kindle at its own game. It's certainly not because we might want to watch an iTunes video. Rather, it's all of this. And much more.

Maybe we need to stop thinking in terms of smartphone market share numbers or processing power comparisons or 7-inch tablets; the small stuff. When trying to determine a value to Apple, maybe we should consider:

• what is the value of owning/controlling every screen?
• what is the value of routing every scrap of content to every screen?

I don't even know where to begin such a calculation. Every book read every year? Every video game played? Every web site visit? Every tv show? Movie? In-store ad display? Every X-ray or cat scan read on the go by a busy doctor? Do we include what people see or could see when they pick up a restaurant menu and look at it?

I guarantee you that when Steve Jobs is laying in bed, wondering how to get under Steve Ballmer's skin, or how to out-innovate Android on some specific function, it's from a different starting point than the one you and I might have. And I'm beginning to wonder if his starting point is:

every screen and everything that could be placed on a screen.