I'd go for Blitz+. It's cheaper and works on my TabletPC. I'm biased ofcourse, then again, so is everyone else.
I'd suggest:
Applications: Java (Foundation Class)
2D games: BlitzPlus
3D games: C# and OpenGL.
I'd suggest:
Applications: Java (Foundation Class)
2D games: BlitzPlus
3D games: C# and OpenGL.