Yeah.... not sure I can add much that wasn't said already in 9 pages of comments? But had to chime in that THIS is exactly what I hate about the "new Apple". This garbage Tim Cook keep spewing about the iPad being pretty much a computer replacement is going to be what drives me away from the Mac after using Apple products faithfully for the last 15 years or so. (Before that, I was pretty much a DOS and Windows guy.)
I own an iPad Pro with a pencil and a keyboard cover, and a few dongle adapters.... and I've owned several iPads before it too. So I'm not against the iPad itself. I can simply tell you it doesn't cut it as a laptop replacement, at all! For starters, it runs the same, dumbed-down operating system originally made for their cellphones! At least Microsoft puts full-blown Windows 10 on their Surface Pro product.
Additionally, it utterly lacks connectivity options. Gigabit wired Ethernet (or wired Ethernet at ALL?) isn't just "nice to have". It's essential if you work in I.T. and need to program new switches, firewalls or routers - doing their initial configurations to put them on a network.
And sure, it has great battery life? But what about the very common situation with laptops where you want to leave it plugged in and use it that way, so you don't run down a battery that you'll need to use later? If you do that on an iPad, you tie up the only expansion port on the thing -- so that means you're not going to be able to work with any external storage devices or anything else that won't talk to it via Bluetooth or wi-fi.
If anything, I'd call an iPad a possible Netbook alternative. And even then, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense when Netbooks are generally so much cheaper and give people a better keyboard to type on.
I've always considered my iPad an unnecessary, but "nice to have" accessory/device to use in addition to my laptop and desktop machines. It's great for certain scenarios like web surfing and emailing people while lying in bed, or using it while standing up. It's also a great kiosk solution, and good for custom projects like in-dash car computers/media players. If I know I have suitable iOS apps on mine for certain tasks I need to do on the go? Yeah, I can take it with me instead of taking a laptop. Or if I know I just want to consume media, like reading e-books or video? Again, it's a good fit for those tasks. (Used to take it with me every day on my work commute when I rode on the train. It served as my music player, let me watch movies or TV shows I put on it ahead of time, and could read the electronic version of the daily newspaper and other news sites on it.) . I'm not an artist but I can definitely see people using it as their primary or only tool for drawing sketches or animations.
But come on, Apple! You just don't seem to get that when I want to play video games, I'm looking at popular titles like Fallout 76 or Overwatch, that just aren't coming to an iPad (or even a Mac running OS X in most cases, these days). And when I want to get work done, I want to use the SAME apps on the go that I use at work. iPads paired with Bluetooth keyboards still don't use the hotkey shortcuts the same way as they do on Windows or on a Mac when you're in programs like MS Office. I always find myself going back and forth between the keyboard and tapping something or other on the iPad screen, and it's just not efficient.
I also want to be able to manipulate multiple programs running at the same time, with independent windows I can resize and rearrange at will. iOS doesn't provide that kind of power at all.
I used to build a lot of basic web sites for people too. Not so much currently, but again -- I can't imagine trying to do that on just an iPad? There are so many good programs for web development in OS X that I don't think have iOS equivalents.
