Nothing like this has ever been done before, so there might be unexpected problems that arise. So the author is a certifiable nutcase who likes quoting obscure things, that much is for certain. This will be no walk in the park. It would be safe to say that the number of people who are comfortable on say Windows 95 or 98 is much greater than the number who are comfortable on NT or UNIX, so this won't be an easy switch. 16 bit programs will not really experience any gain unless the users upgrade much of their software to take advantage of the IA-64.
Upgrades cost money.
Competition dictates that other vendors will do something similar, but they will probably have more instructions and less predication Another one the author grazed over. I would have thought that competition would stimulate improvement and lower price, but alas, I am only a lowly college student and know nothing of such things.