[gmueckl]

But it is a device that does everything. In the end it doesn't matter much which software module delivers the functionality. It is still a device in your pocket that does it. And even a stock iPhine today is more capable than feature phones of those days. People manage to navigate that complexity rather well, all things considered.

[TheOtherHobbes]

The complexity is modular, tactile, solution-oriented, and opt-in.

The iPhone would be unusable if it came installed with every possible app. Making apps opt-in gives users the power to decide which features they do/don't want. And apps are sold as limited tools for specific tasks, not as a rat's nest of do-everything features - like many desktop apps.

Apple could have split apps into different hardware categories, so instead of apps that used the camera you had Camera Apps as a separate category to Microphone apps. But that would have been exactly the wrong approach.

The Apple approach makes user benefits obvious and keeps the technology subservient to them, which is as it should be.

Although having said that, it's hard to imagine today's Apple making that choice and getting it right in the same ways.

[fulafel]

The "Apple approach", once they enabled 3rd party apps, was pretty similar in this respect as the incumbent smartphones and PDAs. The app store as a one stop center, and forbidding sideloadingf, was arguably ahead.