I'm with you. A major pain is that mails cannot be added to be iOS version of our CRM … on the Mac, we have Mail.app integration.

Has anyone in your office tried using an iPad with a bluetooth keyboard? In my experience, it's far less painful. There's a reason Apple Stores carry these[1]: it's just one more (light) bit of padded plastic to drop in your bag, and then you can work on the plane and so on. (If you're at home, I'd recommend using an actual Magic Keyboard if you've got one, but those aren't quite as convenient in portability terms.)

[1] http://support.logitech.com/en_ca/product/keys-to-go-ipad

I (and others in the office) have. You are right that a bluetooth keyboard does pretty much solve the typing issue, and using the actual Magic Keyboard over the floppy iPad-specific keyboards gets it significantly closer to the feeling people are accustomed to. Definitely necessary if you are going to be working on a document (or replying to an e-mail with more than a sentence), but for myself there was still a huge productivity barrier by having to go from the keyboard to screen for mouse actions (scrolling, selecting text, hitting a button). The keyboard/trackpad combination allows both typing and mouse actions with minimal movement on the same plane. It sounds a bit lazy or silly, but I found having to pick one's hand up and poke something on the screen was pretty disruptive.

I'm not sure what the point of having a tablet if it must look and be used like a laptop.

The other thing with these keyboards is that when the tablet is held in table mode, you have your fingers on the keys, which is a pain.

I tend to agree with the post above. Good for reading, not the right tool for editing.

Because you don't always have to use it like a laptop; most of the time you're not editing, so most of the time you're not using the keyboard.

This is the same as, say, people who prefer to use laptops docked to a large screen with an external keyboard and mouse. Most of the time, they can get away without needing all that, which is why they have a laptop instead of a desktop PC plugged into the same peripherals. But sometimes, for an especially heavy-duty task, it's good to be able to temporarily assume the next form-factor up.

Yes but then you have your fingers on a keyboard when you revert to tablet mode. Unless they leave the keyboard in a suitcase.

Right, that's what I meant. You set aside time as "productivity time" where you get the keyboard out of your bag; once you're done, you pack it away.

Works well for me (fiction writer), but might not work for people whose workflows involve constant distraction.

I'm surprised you issue them desktops; why not a laptop with a docking station?

There's no such thing as a docking stations for MacBooks.

(There are USB docks but they cannot really compete with real docks as they are available for PC notebooks. And Apple does not sell an external Retina screen either.)

I disagree. There are a number of options here, but my personal favorite is the Belkin TB2 dock. Plug in two cables (power/TB) and I have three external screens, wired keyboard, multiple USB3 plugs, gigabit Ethernet, and a decent audio line out.

If you prefer something exactly like a dock where no cables are involved being plugged in manually, there are several solutions available. Henge Docks, Landing Zone, and BookEndz are some examples.

A Thunderbolt dock is very functional for a laptop. You can hang a large display, keyboard, backup storage, and wired ethernet off the dock and just plug in two cables -- Thunderbolt and power. Various OS niceties make it work well.

Also, Apple may not sell them, but it's definitely possible to connect a 4K external display that's HDPI (aka Retina, minus marking speak).

"marketing" speak.