I think it was Rob Pike who later said he regretted using the term "systems programming" to describe Go. They never meant the phrase to mean purely operating system tools and programs (ie. not web applications or interactive end-user applications), which would be rather limiting. Instead, he said he said they meant it as a language for composing systems, as for example a typical SOA web site may be, or even for application development as you've alluded to.

Edit: Rob mentions it here at 06:50: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Lang-NEXT/Lang-NEXT-2014/Pan...