A while back I read a post that said something along the lines of the less publicized a coin launch, the more the potential upside. In the case of Ethereum, you have the most public and well known coin launch ever, which means everyone who wanted some ether probably has it. It seems fairly likely that there will be a long period of flat or downward movement until there is an actual demand for ether, which could take quite a while. I think this will exacerbated by mining. All that said, I'm not up to date with how many apps are going to be ready to go or what their value may be. My timeline of how long it will take to have actual use cases could be way off and while I did not buy any ether, I do wish everyone who did the best.