Gemmtech,
your criterion for doing "real work" (TM) seems to be based on MS Word, MS Excel, and other specific software like Adobe Lightroom.
On one hand I agree that people who specifically need compatibility with MS Word and MS Excel will be better off with a device using an Intel x86 architecture processor, not any device using an ARM processor ... and this usage will be better served by a real keyboard, and maybe a mouse (since existing desktop software UIs expect those input devices), and then as you suggest, a laptop (either Windows of Mac OS) could be a better tool than any touch-screnn only device like an iPad or Windows or Android tablet. Likewise, people who want the full power of professional software like Lightroom or Aperture or Adobe Creative Suite components like Photoshop are better off with an x86 powered device, at least for now. A Windows on ARM (WOA) tablet that can only run newly written Metro (WinRT) apps plus just the four main MS Office components that MS has ported to WOA will not help power users much, so I understand your preference for the traditional "Windows on x86" environment.
On the other hand, a lot of real work is done without specifically needing Word or Excel or Lightroom. Some people need a word processor or spreadsheet without it having to be Word or Excel, and indeed the all time top-selling paid app for iPad is a word-processor: Apple's Pages. There is also a spreadsheet at #11 (Numbers), presentation software at #12 (Keynote), a more MS Office compatible combination of word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software at #19 (QuickOffice Pro HD), and a bunch of other productivity apps mixed in amongst the recreational apps, despite these productivity apps being more expensive than most other apps: see list below, with "productivity" apps starred.
Of course, games, reading and viewing/listening dominates, and that is what you will usually see when you ask strangers in public about what they are doing on their iPads, but "mostly recreational" is very different from "no real work". By the way, in my workplace, iPads are used to read and make brief notes on technical documents and books, read email and send (brief) messages, read and modify calendars and to do lists, interact with our employer's web-sites, deliver presentations including live writing on the screen over the prepared slides, and do computational and graphics demos with apps like SpaceTime and GraphCalc HD.
All-time top-selling paid iPad apps as of March 7, 2011:
*1. Pages
2. Angry Birds HD
3. Angry Birds Seasons HD
*4. Penultimate
5. Scrabble for iPad
6. Fruit Ninja HD
7. GarageBand
*8. GoodReader
9. Angry Birds Rio HD
10. Cut The Rope HD
*11. Numbers
*12. Keynote
13. Words With Friends HD
14. Star Walk for iPad
15. MONOPOLY for iPad
16. Plants vs. Zombies HD
17. Where’s My Water?
18. Friendly Plus for Facebook
*19. QuickOffice Pro HD
*20. Notability
*21. Splashtop Remote Desktop for iPad
22. Pinball HD
23. MyPad+ – For Facebook & Twitter
24. Infinity Blade
25. Real Racing 2
Source:
http://www.macstories.net/news/apple-reveals-new-all-time-top-apps-following-25-billion-downloads/