From an email I sent to somebody concerned about bitcoin usability just a couple of days ago:
Making the reference Bitcoin application more usable isn't a high priority for me right now.
The high priority is making it safe to use, even if your computer gets infected by malware. I WANT it to be hard and geeky to use so only geeks who are able to keep their computers secure run it.
Also, the "download and run software on my computer" way of doing things is dying. The vast majority of ordinary users will be using Bitcoin on their smart-phones or through a web browser in the near future....
Thats fair enough, but wouldn´t it be possible to include an up to date snapshot of the current blockchain (updated on a daily/weekly basis), as an option. Whilst the disk space being taken up is substantial the real issue seems to be the time it takes to catch up when first installing the client. Downloading via the network takes for ever. I do get that you may not want to do that via bitcoin.org. but how about providing it via a torrent link for example?