We have been investigating both Android and Apple tablets this year.
After a few trails in schools I know that I have come to a conclusion as to what platform performs bets in school.
First a brief pro and con list for each platform.
Apple iPad
Pro
•Loads of great Apps that are fun and creative.
•Intuitive to use
•Great battery life - can be used for left on for a few days and will still work
•Built in camera that is very easy to use an access.
•Interoperability of apps - they all work together.
Con
•Difficult to manage large sets of devices. (This will change when Volume Purchasing of Apps is available in the UK - currently only US)
•Can be difficult to share work.
•No Flash Support
Android - Acer (There are other tablets available - which might change some of the hardware pros and cons)
Pro
•Has flash - Flash support will vanish though with the newest android update. You won't be able to even install it on new devices after 15th August (Jelly bean 4.1)
•Can be cheaper to buy.
•Built in camera.
Con
•Difficult to manage large sets of devices even more than apple devices - they can't be synced with a computer - This can be helped with software like Learnpad though.
•Can be difficult to share work.
•Less high quality apps - though this is changing more apps appearing on both android and apple.
•Apps don't really work well together.
•Not as intuitive to use out of the box - Learnpad software adds an iOS type skin over the top of android.
•Average battery life - a day in the model we used.
The above is by no means a definitive list - any comments would be welcomed and I will add to them to the lists.
I think it is quite clear what I prefer. Apple in most cases beats the Android devices hands down.
Removing any of the pros and cons to do with the hardware, it simply comes down to ease of use, the quality and interoperability of the apps themselves. Both still have issues with managing large sets, but at least the apple configurator will help lots when Volume Licensing comes to the UK - currently it will only work with free apps.
Apps from the appstore are in most cases better designed and work must more effectively together. To do tasks in school you often have to run the image or video though a few apps to tweak different parts - it is so easy to do with an iOS device.
The main reason I always thought that an Android would be a better fit for schools is that they support flash so a lot of the flash content that schools use can be used on the tablet. What I have come to realise is that we have PC's and Apple Mac's for flash content.
Tablet computers are different devices and shouldn't be used in the same way we use laptop and desktop computers - we need to use them differently and by not having flash it help to force you to do so.
So my final word is if you want to get tablets for your school look at the iPad!
(Of course when Microsoft surface comes around we may have to look again - don't you just hate how technology changes so quickly.)