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The FAA permits airlines to allow the use of most PEDs on planes if the airlines have performed the appropriate tests (whatever they are) to certify that they are safe. Note, however, that the default position is that they are not allowed; they are only allowed if the airline takes certain steps to permit them.
Cell phones are different - because they can reach so many towers from the air, the FCC (different agency) prohibits them from being used in the air, regardless of what they might do or not do to the plane.
And one airline (I think SW) said that it wasn't interested in permitting cell phones on flights because passenger surveys have suggested that they wouldn't like being next to a passenger who was chatting on the phone the whole flight.
Note that - since airlines have to go to some trouble to certify the use of PEDs on planes - the fact that they can charge for wireless gives them a pretty good incentive to do whatever it is they need to do.
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