Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg News

When it comes to the underlying technology providers that matter for mobile app developers, there’s Google, Apple and everyone else. Microsoft is one of the companies trying to claw its way out of the everyone else category.

But as television begins to resemble the mobile business, Microsoft is in the lead with the Xbox, according to a new report out Wednesday from Forrester Research. The report, by the Forrester analyst James McQuivey, argues that there is a battle of technology platforms about to commence in the television market every bit as intense as the one in mobile, featuring Microsoft, Apple, Google and a small handful of other companies, possibly including Facebook and Amazon.

With the Xbox, Mr. McQuivey believes Microsoft is the farthest along in creating a meaningful audience of people watching online video through their television sets and holding that audience’s attention for the longest amount of time. “Using those metrics, Microsoft is in the lead, offering everything that matters: a growing content library, a convenient engagement path for millions of existing Xbox 360 owners, and a growing ecosystem of partners and developers eager to exploit the platform for their own purposes,” Mr. McQuivey wrote in the report.

“Platform” is one of the tech industry’s favorite pieces of jargon, referring to technologies like Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Microsoft’s Windows and Google’s Android that have created foundations for independent companies to build products — everything from apps to carrying cases to personal computers. Microsoft has been adding more and more apps lately to the Xbox that allow people to watch streaming video from providers like Comcast Xfinity, Verizon FiOS and HBO. And of course, there are loads of games on disc and in downloadable form that run on the Xbox. too.

Forrester estimates that half of Xbox users in the United States have connected their devices to the Internet. Microsoft has shipped more than 66 million Xboxes worldwide.

Microsoft has not yet gone as far as Apple and Google have with their mobile platforms by creating an app store that is open to almost any developer with the right technical skills. In an interview, Mr. McQuivey said Microsoft should do exactly that if the company wants to stay ahead of more serious moves in the television market by Apple and Google. “If Microsoft understands what they’re sitting on, they will open that platform,” he said.