Move Over Netflix, Apple Wants a Piece of the Streaming Video Pie

Now that iCloud is up and running, nothing except a Hollywood studio could stop Apple

from accomplishing its long-term goals.

But if

(via

) is correct, the Mac maker is already talking with major Hollywood studios to make this dream come true. Once a few deals are struck, Apple will be able to stream movies to its devices, including the iPhone and the iPad. While users can already get streaming movies on these devices via Hulu Plus and Netflix

, Apple could have an advantage in that iTunes offers more videos than both of its streaming competitors. Only Amazon

poses a significant threat in this regard, as the online retailer has been

its paid, free and Prime-only video collections. But if Apple was given the right to stream every video it had for an individual fee, or stream them together for one monthly price, Amazon might have a hard time keeping up. What about the

that Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicted Apple would produce? That could still become a reality, and may very well be what Apple's studio talks are really about.

.