At the end of last week???s Monday Note, I briefly wondered about the rumored Amazon smartphone. Would it follow the Kindle Fire strategy: Pick Android???s lock and sell the device at or below cost in order to lubricate the wheels of Amazon???s e-commerce of tangible and intangible things?

This week, we have the rebirth of another story: the Facebook phone. All Things D, the Wall Street Journal???s site dedicated to??? All Things Digital, aired a series of posts focused on Facebook???s hypothetical jump into the smartphone fray. Given the site???s reputation for reliable sources and real writing, this must be more than idle speculation floated for pageviews.

But what???s going on? Why would Facebook ??? or Amazon ??? create its own smartphone?

Yet another service, yet another device. Used to be the goal was to own the consumer, now the consumer believes they own you…