I'm dying to write about the Zune HD, but here's a bit more info in the build-up to the product's September launch: It will indeed support an applications and an app store, thus removing its one remaining competitive shortcoming with the iPod touch:
Did you happen to make it into a select few Best Buy stores over the weekend? If so, did you get a chance to stare at/touch/play with a Zune HD? We certainly hope so. But! If you didn’t get that great of an opportunity, then it looks like a video might just have to cut it for now. And why is this video so amazing, other than giving you another look at the sexy piece of gadgetry? It shows off the Marketplace on the device, and then right there, smack-dab in the middle: Apps.
We’ve got job postings, and developers of competitive products saying they’re being enticed with money to come on over to Microsoft’s team, and finally XNA creators meant for the Zune that combine to tell us (and everyone else, we imagine) that Microsoft pans on being in the applications development bandwagon, and not simply for their Windows Mobile products. So, with help from third-party developers, it’s pretty safe to assume that Microsoft is setting up the new Zune HD as a legitimate iPod Touch competitor, and for most, the applications that Microsoft plans to have on that said device will really decide that impending war.
Sounds good to me.