I guess the answer to the question is not a lot would happen.
Hyperion have already said they have no compelling reason to switch to x86 and I can see their point. Ok, say that OS4 x86 was released today and it supported a single MB/Graphics chipset (eg ION ATOM for example), would they suddenly magically sell 1000's of OS4 copies....no, of course not.
And how would everyone who has invested in a SAM feel? Pretty pissed off I reckon.
Things would probably have worked out a bit differently if Amiga hadn't gone down the PPC road back in 95, in that case it would have gone x86 years ago (with a decent x68 emulation layer) and AROS wouldn't even exist right now. It would be very hard for Hyperion to now come up with an x86 OS4 with decent support for classic x68 applications and the newer PPC stuff.
If you look at the current OS market shares it's quite interesting. Windows is way out ahead with something like 90% of the market share, OSX is second with about 5% and then Unix (all flavours) brings up the rear with about 1%. Now you have to ask yourself, if something as impressive as Ubuntu which is free, has wide hardware support and is reasonably well marketed struggles to get near %1 market share...how can OS4 ever be anything but a very small player in a niche market?
