I think you're not entirely wrong. Sometimes I feel the same way.
The iPad could be so much more.
I mean, it's great for surfing the Internet. I can also read Kindle books on it, and it's good for this purpose. And for reading PDFs and Word files, or reading anything else.
But it's limited. There are plenty of apps developed for it, but what can those apps really do? Facebook? Gmail? We can all access the content of these apps via a web browser.
In fact, the reality is that most apps became irrelevant, either on a tablet or a computer. In my computer, the apps I really use are web browsers, media players, games, messaging and productivity apps.
The iPad comes with a web browser (Safari) and a media player (iTunes), and, while, I can replace them with other apps (such as Google Chrome, for instance), they will still perform the same function.
Messaging? Well, there's Messages and FaceTime, and you can install Skype or something else. There are some games for the iPad as well.
And then there are the productivity apps. In my view, productivity apps are what make computers really useful. Microsoft Office is probably the most used software in the world (apart from operating systems), and there's a reason for that. It's the standard software for office productivity. Everybody who wants to be productive, with no compromises, should take a look at Microsoft Office. There are alternatives, of course: WordPerfect Office, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, iWork, and so on. But the Microsoft suite is the standard, and I'm not getting into which one is better than the other.
Office productivity apps are not the only ones around, though. There are other productivity apps. You may use them for desktop publishing, for creating and editing movies, making web pages, editing photos, and so many other things. It will all depend on what you need. While nearly everybody needs office productivity, not everybody needs to edit photos or create videos.
That's where the iPad fails, in my view. Office productivity is poor on the iPad, and that makes it feel like a toy. There's no Microsoft Office for iPad, even though Microsoft Office is the standard and everyone seems to use it. There are alternatives, but those alternatives seem somewhat sub-par. iWork for iPad, for instance, looks great. But have you tried to use Pages for iPad for two hours? The experience is completely different from using Pages on a Mac. It is difficult to perform complex tasks such adding footnotes. Typing is good with a keyboard, but there's no mouse, and a finger is not half as precise as a mouse pointer. You can't use apps side-by-side. You can't add fonts. There's no file system. Word processing is poor and limited on the iPad, even though word processing is perhaps far more used than any other productivity tool. Keynote provides a better experience, but Numbers is poor.
The bottom line is that the iPad will not be taken seriously unless it can provide for a good productivity experience. And that must encompass office productivity, and not only those creative productivity apps aimed at designers, photographers and movie directors. If there's no general good old fashioned office productivity on the iPad, then the iPad will remain as a luxury toy.
For that, Apple will have to make the iPad more computer-like: allow two simultaneous apps to run side-by-side, provide a better and more precise pointing device, allow more freedom for add-ons and browsing content, and so on. Look at the Microsoft Surface Pro, for instance. You may complain on the battery life, on the screen size and ratio, on the size and weight, on the price, and on several other factors. But you can't say it's useless. It runs Windows and Microsoft Office, and every other productivity app ever released for Windows. A premium office productivity experience makes all the difference.
