I own a number of electronic devices - Galaxy Nexus, iPad (3rd gen), MacBook Pro, iMac, and a Windows desktop.

Surprisingly, the most unreliable (in terms of application crashes and weird issues that require a reboot of the device) is hands-down the iPad. I guess a few mitigating factors might be - app crashes are usually relatively easy to recover from, reboots fix most other problems, and viruses/malware (which have traditionally been vexing for many casual PC users) aren't an issue.

I'll supply a counter-anecdote... my iPad has never crashed nor needed a non-update reboot in the year I've had it, whereas my Galaxy Nexus is a continual source of reboots, dropped signals and general trouble :-)

Yeah, my Nexus is slowly overtaking my iPad in that department.

It is a little surprising to me that I appear to have far more negative experiences with iPads than is normal - I don't really do anything out of the ordinary or even push the limits of the device, and yet, I run into all sorts of consistent minor issues that seem to be indicative of software issues (especially with mobile Safari).

Don't get me wrong - I'm generally happy with the device, I'm just a little surprised at how flaky it is at times.

>the maintenance of an iPad is negligible compared to a proper pc

Oh, I agree with that. The iPad was a huge advance for people without the desire and inclination to spend a lot of time learning to maintain a computer.