As a data scientist, I usually rely on tableau / R / python in order to get the results I need. Recently my MacBook was out of action and with a creeping deadline I needed to get some results done quickly. Thankfully it was pretty basic stuff, but doing it in excel for iPad turned out to DOOM-esque nightmare, with macros and unwanted functions coming out the walls, and weird esoteric quirks that have been embedded in the user base since the early 90s that are just accepted as being “the right way”. I am sure that excel is a fantastic application if you’re familiar with the desktop versions, but I have managed to avoid it altogether in my career so far. With only 8 hours left from my deadline, I thought I’d give the data another crack in numbers. What can I say, everything is laid out in such a sane way with the same functionality. It appears that the apple guys really do still care about intuitive app design! I managed to get up to grips and bash the data into shape in less than 1 hour (I’d been struggling with excel for 3 hours that morning). Whilst it may be true that in terms of raw speed excel is faster, I found that for my needs - a relative spreadsheet noob - I was able to get the results I wanted very quickly. TL,DR; if you already know excel, get excel. If you don’t - get Numbers instead and save yourself the headaches and steep learning curve.