FTA: -- “Our robot had many features that still haven’t been duplicated today,” Fowler recalled. “We had an autonomous robot that could self navigate, plug itself in to recharge, speak, sing, play music, recite poetry, recognize commands and a bunch of other features. We programmed it to act as an alarm clock, security guard, entertainer and tutor for the kids. It was very advanced.

But when people asked us ‘What can it do?’ and we would list its capabilities, they would always scoff. --

We see this cycle repeat over and over again in almost every area of tech, and so rarely do we learn from it. What Mr. Fowler failed to grasp was that people weren't interested in buying a robot that had 'features', they wanted one that provided utility.

At the end of the day their lack of utility made these robots toys - very expensive, klunky, difficult to use, and unreliable toys.

Heed me children - when building something, focus on utility over cool features. Solve a problem, and make it easy to use and the world will beat a path to your doorstep.