We have iPads and love them! (My husband has an Android phone that he hates, and our schools was getting iPads so we didn't consider anything else.)
You can get lots of free apps for kids--both educational and fun. Some of them are lite versions that are free and then you have to pay $.99 to unlock all of it. I like that because I can be sure the game is worth paying for. We probably have 100+ apps on each iPad and probably paid more than $.99 for 1/4 of them.
I'm not sure what the previous poster meant by Apple products not having as much development as Android. I've heard (from app developers) that Apple is easier to develop for. They have some stricter "rules" for developers to follow, but I think that leads to higher quality apps. There are several apps that we have for the iPads that my husband can't get for his Android phone, or they become available for Android several months after they were available for Apple.
If you have a Netflix account you can watch movies on the iPad. You can also rent or buy movies from iTunes but we have only done that a couple of times.
I use it for photos and taking videos when I don't have my camera with me. It doesn't take great photos if you are zooming in on something, but for close up it is good. I think you can find apps that will improve the picture quality, but I have a nice camera if I'm taking serious pictures.
I hardly ever use our computer anymore. I do email, Facebook, and Pintrest on the iPad. My calendar is also on my iPad. The only thing I don't use it for is word processing and spreadsheets.
The only thing that has been frustrating is Apple customer service. If you haven't purchased the "right plan" they won't help you with problems. But we have never had issues with the iPads. We had called them about an iPod.
I've never used any other tablet (other than a Nook which I don't like for apps) so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I wouldn't give up my iPad. In fact I want another one that I won't have to fight my kids for!