I have an iMac, an iPad, and an iPhone, (and two iPod shuffles, gotta have my 'tunes) and love the fact that they all update each other anytime my wifi is on. I don't have to do anything. If I buy an app for the tablet, it is automatically downloaded to the iPhone too. If I don't want it on both, I just delete it from the other. I have over 2500 songs on my iMac, that when I synced it with the tablet and phone, were added to the phone and tablet both. That alone was worth my money. Can you imagine having to transfer all that music one at a time? Me neither. My iMac is a 2006 , that has been updated to a 2009 for $30!) tablet is a 2009, and iPhone is a 2014, and they all play well together. Can't do that with "Mircosoft"....
if you go to the apple shopping site, and scroll all the way down, you will find reconditioned machines, that make trying an Apple product much less expensive. They are reconditioned by the same peole who make them, so you get a new computer, in an older case. If you are like me, and don't mind the older covering, you can save quite a bit of money. Good luck, and welcome to the club! There is also a yahoo group for apple product owners who are all as helpful as the folks here. A great resource for getting started.