They use them just to phone and text. The difficult part is the OS, I've seen people who didn't know about the drop down menu etc. my wife's dad (73 yo) nearly smashed his £80 Samsung as he couldnt turn off a reminder let alone start flashing roms.
The vast majority of Android users don't know what GHZ (and probably don't care) their processor is or what version of Android it is. Simply put iOS is far more intuitive than Android, and no amount of cores or the latest java benchmark will change that
If they couldn't turn off a reminder, then they just aren't very technologically literate. When a reminder goes off, there are only two options, snooze or dismiss. So if they couldn't figure out which one to hit, that says more about them than it does about the device. As for iOS being "intuitive", I really tire of that buzz word being used. There are some things that are more intuitive on iOS, just as there are more things that are more intuitive on Android. For example, on iOS, if a notification comes in and I tend to it, I can't just hit back and go back to where I was prior to the notification. That's not very intuitive. What is intuitive is being able to hit the back key and be back on the screen I was on prior to addressing whatever notification I dealt with. Both OS' have their pluses and minuses. I think one of the biggest myths is the "intuitiveness" of iOS being greater than other OS'. I think you're confusing simplicity with intuitiveness. iOS is more simple than Android, which is both it's biggest advantage and biggest shortcoming, and vice versa.
As for your example, regarding the person not knowing about the notification panel. If they couldn't figure out how to pull it down on Android, then they certainly would not in iOS, when the notifications disappear and aren't even static. They wouldn't even know it's there then. That goes back to what I was saying about some things being more intuitive on Android.