I agree with this post, but outside of a few specific things I don't think the issue is with Apple (or Android, or whatever).
The issue is people; most non-tech people either don't care about learning how to properly use a tool they'd be using for the rest of their life, or are scared to for whatever reason.
I'm not sure what the solution is. Dumbing down the UI for the lowest common denominator doesn't seem viable - it would completely kill any productivity (try to do your job with the children's toy equivalent of your usual tools), and I'm not even sure it would solve this - the "target market" of such change would most likely also get annoyed by it (I noticed that the people we're talking about are outright not interested in spending any time setting up their device, so a 50-step setup screen is unlikely to sort out the issue).
Maybe the solution is to let "natural selection" take its course; eventually you'll be expected to know how to operate these devices if you want to function in society. And honestly that's fine by me. There are already tons of things you are expected to know if you want to operate in today's society (social skills, managing your finances & administrative tasks, etc) and everyone seems to be doing fine with that.
The downside of a simple mode is that it locks the user in and prevents them from discovering what "advanced" stuff their device can do; so essentially they're wasting money by having a 1k$ supercomputer in the pocket and intentionally it dumbing down to Nokia 3310 levels.
The issue is people; most non-tech people either don't care about learning how to properly use a tool they'd be using for the rest of their life, or are scared to for whatever reason.
I'm not sure what the solution is. Dumbing down the UI for the lowest common denominator doesn't seem viable - it would completely kill any productivity (try to do your job with the children's toy equivalent of your usual tools), and I'm not even sure it would solve this - the "target market" of such change would most likely also get annoyed by it (I noticed that the people we're talking about are outright not interested in spending any time setting up their device, so a 50-step setup screen is unlikely to sort out the issue).
Maybe the solution is to let "natural selection" take its course; eventually you'll be expected to know how to operate these devices if you want to function in society. And honestly that's fine by me. There are already tons of things you are expected to know if you want to operate in today's society (social skills, managing your finances & administrative tasks, etc) and everyone seems to be doing fine with that.