"Please don't let the average joe realise we've got a great scam going selling them expensive hardware that they don't actually need to check their e-mails and write word docs"

People forget that we've been checking e-mails and writing word docs since 486s and even earlier without any problem. Whilst there are of course new features now the obvious point is that you don't need a high spec computer to do the things 75%+ of users want to do with their computer.