The smartphone is the point of presence. And why Amazon has to release its own smartphone.

Yes, you heard it first from me: Amazon will offer its own smartphone, using its own version of Android, sometime in 2012. Probably first half of the year.

I've already spelled out the reasons for this but here's a great data point to further support my argument:

Mobile Continues Strong 9-Month Growth: In the last nine months, the share of U.S. online retail dollars attributable to mobile devices has doubled from 1.87 percent in April of 2011 to 3.74 percent in December 2011. RichRelevance also tracked a spectacular increase in mobile traffic as share of commerce page views with more than 15 percent of shopping sessions occurring on mobile devices. In April of 2011, just under 9 percent of all shoppers were browsing digital aisles via a mobile device. By December of 2011, the share has more than doubled, reaching 18 percent of all consumers.

iPad and iPhone Dominate Mobile Shopping: Apple mobile devices account for the bulk of all online non-desktop sales: just over 92% of the sales originated from an iPad or an iOS-enabled device in December 2011, up from 88 percent in April. Apple mobile devices also have a larger average order value (AOV) compared to other mobile platforms ($123 for Apple vs. $101 for Android in December 2011) – and far outstrip desktop orders ($87)

Mobile purchases -- and searches for items via mobile -- are growing fast. And nearly every purchase made by a smartphone is made by an iPhone -- or other Apple product.

Amazon is the world's store. To continue, they must be everywhere, meaning they must be with you all the time, even when you are in another (physical) store. 

There's simply no way they cede this to iPhone. And they damn sure aren't going to wait around till Google Android is competitive with iOS.