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People Often Deride Game Changing Technology as 'a Toy' (medium.com)
Steven Sinofsky, former President of the Windows Division at Microsoft, has cataloged how often game-changing technologies have been derided as toys. Some of the things he has included in the list include a PC, C programming, PC networking, GUI, color screen, AI, and internet video. He writes: As many have recognized, when inventions and innovations first appear they are often (always) labeled as "toys" or "incapable" of doing "real work" or providing "real entertainment." Of course, many new inventions don't work out the way inventors had hoped, though quite frequently it is just a matter of timing and the coming together of a variety of circumstances. It can be said that being labeled a toy is necessary, but not sufficient, to become the next big thing. This got me thinking about all the conferences, trip reports, and new products I have looked at over many years. Sure turns out that a huge number of things in my own career were labeled as toys -- not just by me, but by an industry at large. Check out the list on Medium.
Clippy was once a "toy" Microsoft sent to annoy millions of office workers just trying to get something written and go the hell home.
After a sex change (not that there's anything wrong with that), he/she's back to annoy over a billion people as "Cortana" (que the ESPY awards) whether they are at work or not.
http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/15/5617234/clippy-replaces-cortana-in-windows-phone-easter-egg