Well, hmm. I've been reading along here, and as much as I would like to agree with this, I have to say, no -- this is simply not true. At all.

I have, for most of my life, been the "technical" guy in my family. I was the kid who could reset the timer on the VCR. The guy who could install or update your computer's OS. And yes, I even get called by some relatives when their TV has a problem.

People don't want to spend an hour learning how to set up their devices. They want to flip a switch and have it work. I know I always point to him, but yes, Steve Jobs had a point -- Apple's fortunes really took off when it started producing products that had less features than before: an MP3 player that only had five buttons on the front, and only allowed you to select commands from a tiny menu of choices. A cell phone that completely ditched the keypad, and used a big, cheery screen with a simple finger-painting UI. And yeah, their tablet and TV devices continue this progression.

The industry as a whole now follows Apple's lead; maybe not quite as crazed about simplicity as Apple gets, but after seeing so many folks buying overpriced Apple products like there's no tomorrow, you eventually get the message that simpler products sell better. And this means that leaving out low-percentage options like "headphone and speakers together" is actually a feature. It is one less option you need to code for when you produce the product; one less item to document; and one less item for the customer to learn when they set up the device. And from experience, I can tell you that at least most of my relatives want that kind of simplicity. If Apple's fortunes are anything to go by, the vast majority of folks do.

So yeah, the big corporations don't dumb-down their electronics products because they worry about what smart folks might do with them. They artificially limit what people can do with their products because simpler-to-use products sell.