The advantage of the iPad over any tablet on the market in my opinion is the App Store. Not because there are 30,000 fart apps, but because if you look around you will find some of the most polished and professional tablet apps in the world in that walled garden.
Android has tried in my opinion but it really seems that they are more concerned with the OS, Jelly Bean, Key Lime Pie, Lemon Drops or whatever "L" will be called. It seems that the Android developers just never really got serious about catching Apple with the quality of apps for tablets!
And now there is Windows 8 and I'm giving it a whirl. For any Apple owners out here who have ever used iAnnotate, Omnifocus, or Notebooks, just to name a few you will understand my quest in trying to find replacements for those in the Windows environment and so far I'm drawing blanks.
So in my opinion Apple can open the door to themeing and widgets and allow developers to sell themes and widgets in the app store. Sounds like a great plan to me. Let's step up the competition and see the quality of our tablet experience rise.
There is an LCARS theme for iPad in the app store, or there was, my brother has it in his iPad, it is great, it is the only app I have ever seen that applies a theme. I don't know if they still sell it, but it was beautiful, had the support of CBS and Apple, and it worked great.
For iPhone, the only thing a user can do is use their own images for lockscreen and wallpaper - I do have the images for this theme saved so I can use it, but there are other things in it, when you open a folder it has those orange and purple rounded borders like the Workstations on the Bridge.
"Walled Garden" is a good way to express Apple's Store. Is there a NAVIGIN in the Windows 8 store? Nope. No Navigon, no Tom Tom, but there is an Inrix at least. How about Evernote, Onenote, yes I have a Onenote tile... Blogger, Wikipedia, how about my Union Bank app? Nope!
This is why Microsoft really needs to nail down every application for the store with the question "What PRACTICAL use can the user get out of this?" and there should be a concrete answer to this, and if it is not fulfilled, it should be pulled. Because right now, the fake app makers put a WORD you are looking for in the apps name and tags, so you buy their crappy app, and it has nothing to do with the word you typed in.
[edit] Nope they had Evernote! You know what I do like, is in the store, there was a link to the Desktop app, I clicked on it and it brought up the IE Tile, and it seamlessly downloaded the Desktop app and started the install. They did at least get IE for Metro correct.