Zune HD Apps Launch With Commercials

Nate Anderson on the Zune HD’s apps, which are free downloads but show ads:

The ads show up during app launch, which takes an astonishingly long time. Booting Chess took 30 seconds. […] Launching the weather app takes about 8 seconds, the calculator about 9. Goo Splat, which has been showing a static ad this morning for the Soul, launches in about 17 seconds.

Update: To be clear, these ads aren’t just little banner ads or something like that. We’re talking full-screen videos, like TV commercials. Here’s a video from Ars showing what happens when you launch the chess app.

★ Thursday, 17 September 2009