Bigmc
Had the same dilemma myself regarding my sister, but as others had stated, the ipad is pretty much the standard. My advice is to just take a day and go around with your wife and try the diffrent tablets out. My sis, ended up with the Sony Xperia S1 (an andriod tablet) as she is not and apple fan, and did not like the OS of the surface-(she believed it was still to clunky, and she got burned by microsoft with regards to the Zune player.
Anyhow, at the Sonystyle store, The xperia tablet is priced (16gig. Model) as much as the ipad mini, until christmas, and you get a free cover.
Hope this helps.