In November I'll be consulting a large airline on what tablets they should deploy to their pilots and mechanics. They are a Windows shop, do you think I should recommend iPads?
It's interesting how times have changed.
I've been doing embedded field tablets for fifteen years. Until the iPad came out, most companies would spend the extra money to either buy an already ruggedized tablet, or have one custom designed.
That way, they could have their own special needs addressed, such as perhaps having a serial port to communicate with instrumentation, or a screen heater so the LCD wouldn't freeze up in super cold conditions.
The buyer could also have a totally custom OS image installed, with their own logo, custom apps, custom login/VPN, custom controls, custom lockdowns... stuff that is attempted to be done by third party apps like Good nowadays. In any case, the buyer totally controlled the OS and its updates.
That was how it used to be done. Nowadays, the beancounters are in charge, and managers want less expensive, off-the-shelf devices, that require as little support as possible.
That's quite understandable, but as with anything, you get what you pay for.
To answer your question, if I were you, I'd bring in two options, an iPad and a well researched Windows choice. That way, you look good no matter who's really in charge... the managers or the IT shop.