The story first broke over at Engadget when a set of marketing mock-ups of Microsoft's new Zune, the "Zune HD" were discovered. Microsoft has yet to publicly admit to an iPod touch clone, however based on the initial information that is now available, it appears that the Zune HD will feature a similar unpretentious single home button and a widescreen display which is smaller than that of the iPod touch but fitted to a thicker shell.
The rumor does hold some promising foresight in that the conceptual Zune HD holds parallels to the target audience and general engineering of the original Zune, which also had a lower-density screen and a heftier housing than the first iPod.
Expectations for the Zune HD include implementation of a full-fledged Wi-Fi music store. It should be also safe to assume from its name that a lot of focus will go into video playback, though nearly all information currently available is nothing more than hearsay. Could we start to see some hype over a potential iPod killer all over again? Unless Microsoft tinkers with the idea of sharing some of the strengths a new Zune could inherit from the popular Xbox platform we seriously doubt it.