its not compatible with the iPad

only the iPhoto thing is iPad and its not anywhere close to Aperture
curious what you are trying to figure out about it ?
I am a pro photographer and also have a post production company that does work for only pro photographers doing raw and PS work design layout etc..
so am pretty familiar with all of the raw programs
I use Capture one and LR myself but play with Aperture to keep my toes in the water
my quick take Capture one has a loyal following and is very good some say the best still on output quality alone and I would not argue that ! but LR4 is very solid and much improved and I feel is equal for C1
my personal stuff I use LR 4 and C1 for my commercial work !
I did use Aperture for my personal till LR3 I then switched for reasons I felt the DAM was better and the output was as good I did like Aperture for keeping it easy to update my mac account so my parents could see the grand kids etc..
Aperture is kinda out their on its own a bit so hard to say some pros use it love it ! it does have some of the best color control
LR4 is very easy to use as a DAM setup if you want
output Aperture I think is behind the others a bit in quality it was better than LR3 in highlight recovery
LR4 has the best shadow controls and recovery and highlight tools IMHO especially with the brush tools now
C1 has great ability to work with profiles etc.. making images look great with very little work if you are good at taking shots and they are usually good out of camera ! or not far off
some will argue and I tend to agree C1 has the best skin tones
and for architecture C1 has no rivals !!!! it is the best hands down
for speed of workflow working with large amounts of images per job LR is the leader
personal things such as faces and maps etc.. might be fun in Aperture though
I think any of them can do the job though and its all personal choices of what you like and what you feel is the output you like best !
i say download trials of all of them play with them a bunch
one thing I always say is look at the comunity around that uses it ! if you get stuck where can you get help the quickest etc..
hope this helps some
