The four consumer technology and Internet firms to watch over the next five years and possibly beyond are, in no particular order.

• Apple
• Amazon
• Facebook
• Google

These firms are starting to have overlapping products and services.

• Books
• Movies
• Music
• Social Services
• Content Consumption … (New types may be created in the not to distant future)
• Communications (Phone, IM, Email …)
• Images / Photography
• Community (similar to Social Services) [sort of like Meetup.com]
• Cloud storage – Apple – iCloud, Google – Gdrive (?), Amazon – Cloud Drive

Notes:

These firms have been competing in similar spaces for a while now. Apple has been selling music in the iTunes Music Store since April 2003 and Amazon has been selling MP3’s since September 2007. Google recently introduce Music Beta by Google.

Will Facebook get into streaming movies? They recently added Spotify integration to make their music offering more robust.

Amazon has a streaming movie service, Amazon Instant Video, and Google has YouTube. What will happen to Hulu? Will one of these four players make a move to buy it or create a strategic partnership?