Today was an interesting day. It’s not like it was a surprise at all, but announcements about things under way and things to happen popped up all of a sudden. On one side, Apple continues to expand their media offerings on their iTunes store, including more and more TV shows and movies. Today, for instance, I found out they added Dora The Explorer to their lineup of videos (I guess cool news for parents…) But on the same day word broke out about the new Google Video Store, going beyong their video.google.com space, which until now only offered user-submitted videos. With video as an open front where they are going up against Apple (and Pixar ironically being responsible for over 10% of the sales over iTunes), there was word about a possible Google Tunes Music Store.

As if this news wasn’t enough (it was enough for me), there word also broke about Amazon.com’s formal commitment to compete against all of the above (and Netflix, watch out!) offering downloadable movies starting in April. Perhaps a latecomer to this “party”, but nonetheless a very important force to keep an eye on, considering their penetration of the online shopping segment and the intelligence they’ve gathered over the years that now allows them to give right-on recommendations for other entertainment options when you visit one of their product pages.

Who will win? Who will loose? If you ask me, there will be some consolidation in this field, and the winners will end up being those who remain flexible and mindful of the important things for consumers. I put my money on Apple, Google and Amazon. Netflix, I am a bit worried about, because I don’t see them (yet) breaking away from their current DVD-based model, and stuck there competing against Blockbuster.