We may never see the iTV that so many of us (myself included) envisioned tech giant Apple (AAPL 1.27%) producing. However, the recent entry of e-commerce powerhouse Amazon.com (AMZN -1.64%) into the set-top box market certainly signals that tech names like Apple and Amazon still see this space as a potential growth driver for their respective budding media empires.
Amazon has carved out a valuable lead for itself against Apple in streaming, and it has the numbers to prove it. Amazon recently announced that streaming hours for its Prime Streaming video service had tripled during the past year. Not too shabby.
However, with Amazon and Apple both rumored to be in some form of talks to develop their own television offerings, as well, we could still be in the early innings of this key tech storyline.
Where do Apple and Amazon go from here?
The stage is now set for either Apple or Amazon (or another tech name) to truly raise the stakes and unveil the next great innovation in content creation. And with the recent debut of Amazon's Fire TV devices, it appears the door could be left open to see what Apple has in store when it's expected to meaningfully update it own Apple TV device later this year, as tech and telecom analyst Andrew Tonner discusses in the video below.
