Is a separate mobile page okay?
 

In terms of SEO, is it okay to redirect mobile to a mobile page and ipad to an ipad page? Will Google ding me for this?

No it is not any more. You need to use responsive design instead.

I think it's acceptable as long as you're consistent, but I think it's preferred now to use a responsive design with CSS3 so that mobile users get exactly the same content just in a different layout.

It can be ok if there is no content difference between mobile and desktop version, but you could be have like one dot difference and google will slap you with mobile redirect penalty hence better to have responsive no matter what.

and the extra maintenance to update 2 sites, responsive is much better and it connects to so many different size screens...


otherwise, it´s not just mobile, what about the difference between upright and side on, tablets, 4k and hd screens.

responsive is the only way to go these days :2 cents: