During Apple's conference call today, Apple executives described the iPod touch as a potentially the "first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, running all kinds of mobile applications".
This is the first time that Apple has referred to the iPod touch as anything more than a high end iPod, with newly articulated expectations that the iPod touch would be a standard Wi-Fi enabled mobile platform with a focus on mobile applications.
Apple did release an application update ($20) for the iPod touch at Macworld, now giving it feature parity to the iPhone. Apple is planning on launching a Software Developer's Kit (SDK) in February for both the iPod touch and iPhone, and it appears that Apple is approaching this seriously.
There have been reports that some early developers have already received copies of the SDK and are working on iPod/iPhone applications. No announcements have yet been made about general developer accessibility to the SDK.