Pocket edition gets the most play here because it's more portable. There are no naturally mined or dropped nether items, but you can get them in the creative mode menus. The bigger problem is no redstone circuits. All the in-game redstone logic is just missing. My kids play together all the time; anyone on the same wi-fi can join games. There are no cross-town or international minecraft playdates on pocket edition, though.
There are missing cool features, yes, but if she played it on an iPad then pocket edition is what she played. It's pricey for an app game, but it's easily worth five of every other game I've seen. It's not a lot of money to have wasted if she later decides she wants to upgrade to the full PC game.
