The potential power savings of ARM is why chip makers say there are even talks of putting ARM chips into clamshell designs that mimic laptops. ARM is clearly destined for more than just phones and tablets, areas in which ARM already dominates in the form of Qualcomm and Nvidia chips.

But if Windows 8 works on ARM-processor-equipped systems, consumers could see clamshell style "laptops" with up to 15 hours of battery life.

Of course, once clamshell tablets come out, their keyboards will make them harder to distinguish from ultra-portable laptops. Some will run on x86 chips, like those from Intel and AMD, and some ARM-based systems will run Windows 8--but those may not handle your existing software. We're not sure yet how that will be handled, as Microsoft didn't offer much information at this week's event.

If you're wondering whether you'll be able to use on ARM systems, I did ask--but all of the manufacturers I spoke with glossed over the issue.

"We have thought about it. We're not super concerned," says Qualcomm's Horton. "We think there's a lot of good things coming. The end goal is for the experience to be the same, fundamentally, from a Windows OS standpoint--and it should be the same thing."