I posted in June of last year, and said that I thought that my iPad 3 was about 90% capable of functioning as a sole computer in an office setting. I think that is even more true after 9 months. Primarily, Dropbox is now iPad friendly. That was a major problem which was solved since I last posted. Second, printing from an iPad has become easier.
The main problem is transitioning between an iPad and a PC. Some MS Word docs cannot transfer complex formatting between platforms. But I am convinced that I could use the iPad without a PC, with a wireless printer and cloud storage, if I worked alone. The problem is that my part time secretary uses the PC. I have to conform to her PC format. If the PC died and I worked alone, I would probably just get another iPad. But Dropbox is essential.
A friend has the MS Surface tablet. Its ability to use solid state memory (thumb drives) to transfer documents and music via a USB drive is the one advantage it has over the iPad. When Apple wakes up to that improvement, they will pick up a bigger share of the professional market. I am going to hold off on my purchase of another iPod until they add a USB port that really works.
While I am pretty good with the on-screen keyboard, I have purchased the Apple blue tooth keyboard since last posting. It is superior to the Logitech boards that I bought and discarded. If you become familiar with the short cuts, it is worth the time to learn it. I was wrong about that.
But I only deal with text, including .pdfs, and a few photos. I can imagine other formats that would not work on an iPad. But the biggest problem is compatibility with a PC.
Oh, the other problem is that it bugs people when I take notes during interviews on the iPad faster than I can do so by hand. I usually don't, because it seems distracting to them.