kiltedgreen

“I made the mistake …”  

That’s not an appropriate use of the word “mistake” that matches what you will find in any dictionary!

It hurts, but it would be hard to name the functionality of an app that Apple could decide to make which doesn’t currently have a counterpart in the App Store. I mean “There’s an app for that” basically says that whatever you think of doing, someone else can already sell it to you.

sternapples53 said:

No matter what you say about the iPad, it's still just a large-screen iPhone without the phone. Don't get me wrong, I own one, and it has replaced my laptop with the introduction of the 13" models, but it's not revolutionary. 

Oh dear. At a basic technical level:

Can you use an Apple Pencil work on your iPhone? No.

Can you connect your iPhone to a dedicated (Magic) Keyboard? No.

 Can you open multiple application windows on an iPhone? No.

At a conceptual level, as somebody said many years back, “Saying an iPad is just a large iPhone is like saying a swimming pool is just a very large bath.” Technically they are just containers for water, but when we next have Olympic diving competitions into a bath please let me know.

As you rightly point out, our IT projects have a habit of some combination of one or more of: being late, never delivered, way over budget or flawed. I’m with the view that this won’t work well. Our government has changed (to huge relief) but this legacy of poor efforts stretches back some way.

I had iPods for years and no mobile phone. I only ended up getting a phone when I wanted an iPod touch with more space only to find that I could buy an equal or better performance iPhone with the same storage as an iPod for less money! So that’s how, at the age of about 55 I ended up with a mobile phone …