The initial downloading of the blockchain is, in my opinion, a big stumbling block on the road to adoption. People don't like to wait especially if its something they are trying and don't really know about yet. I'm not a Dev but, have been in the industry mot of my life and this holds true everywhere: Quick=Adoption=Stability=Profit

Here's an idea: could the standard wallets be modified to download a compressed file containing the latest blockchain data current up to say a day or so old? This file could be automatically updated at the source daily. The file could be made available on a large download site with plenty of bandwidth so it would be fast download, seconds vs what we see now. Immediatly following download the wallet would go out and grab blockchain data only from the point a which the file left off.

-or-

Add latest blockchain data to the wallet files so it comes with the download and again, after install, pick up the rest of the chain?

Just something think on, there must be a better way to do this part. Sounds complicated I know but it could be a fully automated process.