I personally find iPad (or any other tablet for that matter) a big hit when it comes to device usage for small kids as well as using as a interactive screen for customers in retail shops.
But yeah, other than that, it would be hard to be productive with just a tablet I reckon.
>using as a interactive screen for customers in retail shops.
This is precisely what we are using iPads for right now. Our clients and end customers are very comfortable using Apple hardware. The screen size on these devices is perfect for most interactions. If you have the device in landscape, it's about as wide as a 8.5x11" document at 1:1 scale.
Also, it is intuitive for most of our users to capture photos of documents or read barcodes using iPads. If I had to build this using USB webcams or even laptops with embedded webcams it would be far trickier from a UX perspective. Also, some of our clients have iPads with LTE connectivity so they can seamlessly go into the field and work with end customers who don't have time to come to them.
That said, the app development ecosystem around Apple is a fucking nightmare. Signing your apps, dealing with regressions after iOS major version updates, trying to do anything at all inside XCode, attempting to automate your builds, etc. This is why we are looking at supporting a wider range of devices heading into 2021 - Surface/Win10, Android, and PWA. IMO the holy grail is PWA, Apple just needs to give it better support (I am quite aware of why they do not want to). If we could somehow get everything working via PWA, we would immediately dumpster the iOS codebase and do the whole thing exclusively using Blazor server-side.
I use an iPad Pro as my primary personal device. I have used it to write a book, and to write code for GitHub.
I would use it in my current job, however we have very strict rules about what we are and are not allowed to do with personal devices regardless of their make and model.
It's quite amazing how capable it is once you rustle up a git client, and editor, and a wireless keyboard.
Yes but the biggest success of the iPad lies mostly in there are no alternatives left. Almost everyone else has left the market. At this point if you’re buying a tablet that’s not an iPad, you really have to go out of your way to make that justification.
But yeah, other than that, it would be hard to be productive with just a tablet I reckon.