More commerce!

One of the benefits of bitcoins is that it can eliminate fraud in e-commerce. That means online stores don't have to charge a 1-2% markup to cover fraud losses. The savings can be passed on to the customer. Not to mention it will facilitate international commerce, as the rate of fraud from international sales is 2 to 3 times higher than domestic.

Imagine if Amazon.com said all prices in BTC will be 2% lower than USD? Think that would help bitcoin take off?

Once there's a strong enough economic ecosystem around bitcoin, the currency exchange losses can be avoided too. There will be no need to exchange BTC for USD.

All in all, speculation and investment vehicles may be the most popular avenues for bitcoin on this forum, but they'll be more and more a drop in the bucket as the market penetration increases.