I think your last point nails it. Perhaps an x86 tablet is less than useful, without a real keyboard[*]. That's why the x86 "tablets" are "convertibles" with the display folding back over the keyboard.
[*] Spilled a cup of coffee in this keyboard last night and a few of the keys are less than real. :-( At least the laptop powered back on this morning.
I expect that 90+% of the source code between the two is identical.
Microsoft has explicitly stated that they're making no provision for running x86 code via emulation (or whatever) on ARM -- all x86 Windows programs are going to have to be re-compiled, at the least, to run on it.
Isn't that what dot net is for?
It could be, although I wouldn't bet any money that Win8-ARM will be able to take a program in IDL format, compile it, and run it; I'd wager you'll have to go back to the original source file in C# or VB.net or whatever and generate a new IDL.
In fact, I seem to recall that they won't be supporting the old Win32 API on the ARM implementation at all -- only the new "Metro" API. But I could be wrong about that...
---Joel
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