Now I’m not saying that the Ipad isn’t clearly the top single tablet, and probably beating all android tablets put together, but that graph is clearly bullshit - B&N has sold 3 million nook colors alone and that is an android tablet.
I have 3 PDF Apps. iBook, GoodReader and Dropbox. The last two have an ‘Open In…’ option that lets me use the other two. Once I do that, I can always view that PDF from either App. Whether the file is copied, or just a pointer created I don’t know - nor do I care at this point, I just works.
It’s probably useful to stop thinking of files as files, copies of files, “written to your device” and so on. That’s the type of stuff Apple is trying abstract away. That’s why your iPad isn’t a USB stick. It’s not a toaster either, and I don’t complain about that. Because I didn’t expect it to be either a toaster or a USB stick.
You can transfer files into (and out of) applications directly with the iPad connected to iTunes. Some apps allow you to create an HTTP connection through Wi-Fi (you turn it on, then visit a provided address, then up- or download files). You can use Dropbox or other similar services to connect with online repositories of files you’ve kept. And you can get at files attached to e-mail.
With music, movies, photos and ebooks (including PDFs) you can use iTunes to manage these and transfer them automatically by syncing.
Photos and music work one way: You have a pile of photos. Apps that manipulate photos can hook into your “pile 'o photos” and pick one up. You have a pile of music. Apps that play or otherwise use music can hook into that and choose one.
Other files work a bit differently: When I get a PDF in my email, I can view it directly through my email app if I want, or I can choose to open it in any of the apps I have installed that deal with PDFs. If it’s a type of file that some app will open, the file will open in that app (or provide me a choice if I have more than one).
Some apps are better than others about letting you transfer a file from one app to another (music and movies excepted – they go “back into the pile” if you save them) – for example if I have two apps that both use WAV or AIFF files, I might not be able to create it in app one and then shovel it over to app two to do something else to it. But that isn’t an iOS limitation, as far as I know, it’s an app programming one – some apps CAN do it.
It really is just a different way of working. There are very few times I can recall being frustrated by not being able to get something from where it is to where I need it to be. I can even take a photo from email, edit it, rename it, upload it through FTP to my server and use a CMS backend to edit a Web site to display it. That’s kind of a pain to do, honestly, but the fact that I can do it at all still amazes me every time.
And that’s really the key. If you want this device to do everything your desktop or laptop can do in the same manner you accomplish it on those machines, you’re going to be frustrated and disappointed with the iPad (and likely with most other tablets too, but probably for different reasons). If you think critically about what the iPad’s capabilities are and what you’re trying to accomplish, and use that to determine whether or not you choose to use the iPad as the right tool for the job, you’ll probably be ok.
You’re thinking too hard. 
I can see the photos in the Photo app, I can ALSO see them in Photopad, a utility I bought to retouch images. I can attach photos to Facebook updates, and I can save photos from web browsers to the Photo section.
It’s better to think about it like a number of buskets. I have a Bucket for Photos (which the photo browser can sort by album, events, Faces, Places, or as a big dumb stack of photos), I have a bucket for Documents and another for presentations. I have a book shelf for books and PDFs.
Really, there’s no hierarchical folder based structure, but I haven’t missed it much. (and you CAN see such a hierarchy in Drop Box, if you’re feeling nostalgic.)
I will readily admit to being someone very much not in Apple’s target market, and I have no problem with Apple making their “simple to use, intuitive” devices. Believe me when I say that I’m not trying to slag Apple here or anything like that. Apple’s whole approach is not my cup of tea, but so long as I’m not forced to use their products I’m happy to say that they make an aesthetically pleasing product that works wonderfully for many, even most people.
But it bloody well is a USB stick. Amongst a great many other things. It’s a general purpose computing device running an operating system based (ultimately) on freaking Unix. This whole “it’s not a real computer, you shouldn’t expect it to behave like one” thing is just beyond ridiculous. It’s a real computer. It doesn’t behave like one because Apple doesn’t want it to. Maybe the way it behaves is fine with you, and that’s great, but the reason it doesn’t behave like a real computer is because Apple has decided it shouldn’t not because it’s not capable of it. I’ll point out that I’m typing these posts on one of the competition - the aforementioned Asus Transformer. It’s behaving at this moment pretty much exactly the way my laptop running XP would, or my desktop with 7 Pro, except that it’s doing it using a skinned version of Linux (aka Android) which like iOS is, at its core, based on Unix. The problems and limitations it has are mostly due to the tablet version of Android still being a bit of a work in progress, and so it’s not quite as stable as would be ideal. Lacking in polish, you might say. Like the iPad, it’s better at media consumption than creation because of its form factor, but its having the option to do real computery thing the real computery way doesn’t detract in the least from its tablety capabilities.
Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. Drives me bonkers when people make excuses for iOS because the iPad “isn’t a real computer.”
Anyways, to get back to the meat of your post, I’m afraid it just confirms my choice for me. What you’re describing is that you can do file management in iOS, but you are more or less required to do it via iTunes, which lives on your computer - meaning that if you’re not at your computer you can’t do it at all, a curious state of affairs for a device intended to be highly mobile - or via Dropbox or its ilk. It strikes me as bizarre that you’d say “you shouldn’t think of them as files or being written to memory” and then go on to describe limited ways of accessing a couple dedicated file structures for specific media types and convoluted workarounds using third party apps to overcome the lack of an Open File>Browse Folders functionality.
And yes, I know that the Apple way works for most everyone, and that I could probably do everything I would want to myself. I’m just happier over here on this side of the fence with a conventional file manager capable of viewing the contents of my device, or of the shared folders on my desktop, or whatever. I suppose I’m not protected from trying to open a graphics file in an audio player this way, but I’m happier. 
You don’t sound happier. :dubious:
Happier is a relative term. 
weren’t the tablet market practically non-existent before the ipad? when people thought of tablets as real computers and coming out with crappy products that never took off? resulting in compromised solutions like the netbook which market has since been devoured by the ipad?
if the quirks of the ipad meant everybody and their grandparents and grandbabies can use it, i’ll say that’s a plus over torturing technical support guys; getting computers that would slow down or stop working over time; being uncertain that the program you bought might even work with your computer.
choice is a good thing, and it has been interesting watching the rest of the competitors play catchup and emulate the ipad. i’m just not sure that they have quite caught up yet, and i do not want to buy a product that, market-wise, is still in beta.
I used to be a Gorsnak, I’m happier now.
Seriously though, if you like files, you’re not going to like the iPad. It’s a paradigm thing - yes, technically your xbox could run linux but doesn’t because Microsoft doesn’t let you, but sometimes designers just know better than you. Would it make you feel better if you had a C:> prompt? don’t answer that
Anyway, to the main question, I have an iPad, and I would not dream of using it for documents. The mouse is too important for document editing - even if you have a physical keyboard, and a stand, you don’t want to be poking the screen every so often. Get a netbook instead, they’re cheaper and more powerful for what you want anyway.
IMO, iPads and tablets only really excel at media consumption, surfing the net on your couch, watching videos, that kinda thing.
Do these tablets come in the form of suppositories? Because I’d say the latter form would probably be more useful, and more user-friendly at that.
Why can’t the tablet be a netbook so we don’t have to choose? That may also answer the question you didn’t want answered. 
Nice. 
Does it do mice though? And open office/word?
Mice, yes. The trackpad is not bad itself. PC software, only if you root it and flash a custom linux ROM. Would likely choke on OO though.
Taking a turn to the left…you know how many people I’ve encountered in these threads that say:
None.
So while the thread is interesting, and takes up time, I don’t think it’s really convincing or converting any of the participants.
Ok, I take back this criticism. I wasn’t pushing down hard enough to connect the tablet and the keyboard. Now I get a resounding click, and it stays connected reliably.
That’s a good point. If you follow the second source link, you’ll see that he’s using “Device Activations on Android 3.x” as the number for Android tablets. The source link also mentions the Nook (he estimates 2.4 million, but that’s in the same ballpark), but claims that the Nook isn’t in the same class.
I’m not very familiar with the Nook Color. I thought it was a custom book reader with a few other built-in apps (like a Kindle, but different display tech). But according to this, it’s got general-purposy apps. Going by the three point definition of a tablet I recently read (1. Has a touchscreen. 2. Bigger than a phone. 3. Can play Angry Birds on it), the Nook counts.
So that probably means that Apple’s current share is more like 85+% than 95+%.
The nook color even in its stock configuration (latest version) does many tablety things. A good number of people get the nook color and then install regular android without B&Ns customizations at all, making it a full tablet. Measuring Honeycomb installs is a bad comparison - Google hasn’t released the full source for Honeycomb yet so only its partner manufacturers can make a tablet with it - but there are lots of others making android 2.2, 2.3 tablets, and a some chinese knockoffs you see on ebay and at places like walgreens for $99 using even older versions.
Edit to add, once the shiny wears off, “tablets” are really in competition with netbooks and ultraportable laptops as well - many people who don’t choose apple go for one of those over an android tablet.
Having done the experiment personally, there’s a WIIIDE divide between the Nook running any non-standard install and an iPad. To say it lacks polish is an understatement, but it is appropriate, considering it’s cost.
The nook color is quite a capable little tablet with the most recent update. It’s not vanilla Android, so you get Barnes & Noble’s market, which offers only a smattering of decent apps. But since there aren’t many native tablet apps out there, I doubt you’d really miss a whole lot, unless you’re into games.
The browser is really nice, and with Flash, it will render a lot of content that the iPad won’t (my kids’ school district website as mentioned earlier for one, Comedy Central’s video site, for another). And with a $250 tablet, you don’t really expect to do much more than browse the web, check email, do some light Google Docs stuff, and watch Youtube/listen to Pandora (both available or preinstalled).
And it is quite a nice e-reader - I bought it for my wife since she wanted a cheap tablet after I got an iPad through work, and she didn’t expect to use it for reading much, but she prefers it to regular books now. It’s got a decent screen, with a lot of viewing options, and pretty good battery life - obviously not close to the Kindle or standard nook, but quite good for device with an LCD screen.