[rshao]

Probably there needs to be another network infrastructure change before the masses adopt large numbers of cores. By that I mean, that current broadband will have to increase again to higher speeds. I mean, it makes sense that your parents can still run a 3-4 year old system if the most cpu intense program they run is Skype. These programs probably won't need the crazy cores until they start processing far greater amounts of data.

However, there is the issue that your typical user interface is becoming more and more graphic intensive. And there's always that end consumer that runs a million apps and never closes them. A few of my non-computery friends are like that and have a bajillion things in their system tray. They too will probably see performance improvements from multiple cores, long before the apps they use take advantage of it, simply because of their habits.