[citation][nom]back_by_demand[/nom]The Windows 8 element is almost irellevant, as long as it can install an OS of the customers choosing such as Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows 3.11, Linux, XBMC Live, and future versions of whatever, whilst being x86/x64 so my existing software is broadly backwards compatible then that is exactly what people want....Sure it's good to look forward to new things, but only built on a solid foundation of continuity.[/citation]
Uhhh, no you are sadly mistaken. People want a device that works......period. Tablet form factors do not work for general purpose OS's. People will buy these Windows 8 tablets and never change the OS because windows 8 will be properly designed to work on that type of device.
Tablets are not new, Samsung and several other released tablets (Samsungs was called the Q1) with Windows XP on it. Windows XP ran ok but it was the worst user experience you could imagine. Almost completely unusable in that form factor. I owned 2 of them because I worked for a company that was working on an Application for Hotels using them as a mobile in room kiosk. Project got canned and I got a good deal on them then after I realized they where useless, I sold them on ebay for $700 each.
Tablets should have a purpose built OS designed to work with that form factor without introducing any of the problems that PC's have to it. It needs to "JUST WORK". Windows 8 I think has a good chance of bridging the gap. But IOS has it nailed right now and Android is not far behind (I only say that because currently Android implementations are basically the phone OS put onto a tablet without tablet specific applications.)