NEAR INSTANT ON/OFF - This is the biggest real world advantage the iPad has over previous tablet computing devices (next is battery life). Having the device available when you want to use it (not 5-10 minutes later) is essential. As is being able to put it away (without waiting for a shutdown process to finish or putting an active device in a case during a protracted shut-down).
I have had two MS tablets and while battery life is an issue, so is waiting forever for the d*mn tablet to come to life or waiting for it to turn off before you can put it away. With windoze, boot up (particularly if it was setup in a corporate environment) can take forever while it searches for networks, drives and apps that are not accessible on the road. Similarly, when you want to quickly turn it off and stow the device (like on an airplane), true shutdown can take forever or you have to stow it while the drive is whirring and the machine is running hot risking damage to the tablet.
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