MICROSOFT announced in late: May that its Zune HD will debut sometime this fall, setting up a battle with Apple’s iPod Touch. The touchscreen portable media player, Microsoft says, will be the first one to combine an OLED (organic lighlemitting diode) display, an HD Radio receiver, Wi-Fi, and high-def video. Microsoft didn’t announce pricing.

The OLED screen will have 480-by-272-pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The Zune HD will also play highdef video on a TV. (You’ll need a docking station and a TVwith HDMI input).

The HD Radio function will allow users to tune in to stations broadcasting in that format, which offers higher fidelity than regular FM and sometimes subchannels with additional programming.

The Zune HD will come equipped with a Web browser and Wi-Fi for connecting to the Internet and Microsoft’s Zune store. Users will be able to access TV and video content offered on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace, streaming that content to a Zune HD. the mobile handset market, have significant benefits over the more traditional LCD screens. OLEDs are thinner and don’t need a backlight, resulting in longer battery life and superior picture quality.

A number of other mobile devices should feature OLED screens soon, induding the iPhone 3G S and the Samsung I7500 with Google Android. A new iPod Touch will likely feature an OLED screen, too, putting it head-to-head with the Zune HD.

The iPod Touch already has Wi-Fi capabilities and a fully functional Web browser, Safari. (What browser the new Zune will use is not yet clear.) The Zune HD will be able to stream music over Wi-Fi, which the iPod Touch can so far do only via thirdparty applications.

But the real competition between the Zune HD and the iPod Touch will come down to software. The new Zune will be based on a custom version of Windows CE; the iPod Touch, of course, runs on the already popular iPhone platform-which has thousands of apps available.