[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Faterson

That is just your position, and that's fine. My position is different. It's a common cliché to call the iPad a "toy" and a "consumption device", and not a "productivity device", but to me, that has never been true. I started using the iPad 1 as a productivity device on Day 1 it went on sale back in 2010, and I've been using it as such to this day.


That is you. Please do not conclude, based on the sample of your own person, that the entire world is just like you.


I assure you that Logitech's Ultrathin iPad Keyboard Cover is at least an equal stroke of genius. Again, you seem to be judging something you may not be familiar with. That Logitech keyboard is designed so that when you put it together with the iPad, it looks like a single device.


You seem to equal "bluetooth" with "crappy" keyboards. Sorry, not justified. Bluetooth keyboards like the one by Logitech work like a charm. Nothing crappy about them (as also shown by their pricetag). (By the way, all of the keyboards I use with my traditional computers are wireless, too; why would I use an other-than-wireless keyboard with an iPad? That wouldn't make sense.)


My commiseration on using Outlook. I for one no longer use that atrocious software. In fact, right there is one of the main reasons why iPad is for me a more productive device than Surface Pro could be: my primary e-mail software for almost a year now has been Mailbox, and it's only available on iOS.


Not good enough for me (as usual for Apple software). On iOS, I use DocsToGo to manage and edit my Office documents. It cooperates with MS Office on my traditional computers flawlessly; I keep editing (for example) the same Excel files on an everyday basis in both MS Office and DocsToGo, and it works perfectly.


Definitely not. Windows 8 is far, far behind iOS in productivity tools, too. And I mean tablet productivity tools, not traditional desktop software with desktop user interface, available on a tablet. Just to give one example: my PIM software is Toodledo. As an app, it's only available on iOS -- not even on Android, let alone Win 8. It can be used via the website, but that's an inferior solution on a tablet. And that's exactly where Windows 8 fails most (for now): lack of apps. And I'm not talking about games, but about productivity apps. What could be more important for productivity purposes than email software (Mailbox), PIM software (Toodledo), e-reader software (Marvin and GoodReader), etc. etc. etc.? None of these great apps are available on Windows 8, and their functional alternatives on that platform lag far behind the iOS apps in terms of quality and usability on a tablet.

Summary: good for you if you enjoy your Surface Pro. But, on the basis of a sample of one (your own person), please do not make conclusions about the suitability of iOS devices to serve as productivity tools.

You link productivity tools/apps to being productive.
To me, that's only partially true.
For example: In the beginning, iOS devices hadn't even been capable of copy/paste. Whatever apps/tools you might have used back then: It still can't be a productive tool. Copy/paste is such basic a pre-requisite, that you're lost without it. Same, to me, is true for the onscreen keyboard. Yes, most of the time I'll try to use a physical keyboard. But if this would be possible all (most) of the time, I could use my MacBook Air. So obviously there has to be a reason for using a tablet. For some, it may be the touchscreen. For me it was not opening the lid of a notebook, i.i when crammed on a train. But with the onscreen keyboard of iOS devices you can't do much. At least there are shortcuts for some time now. But before that? Productive?