Bitcoin has to hard fork in order to address the 1 MB max blocksize limit. If it does not it will not be able to scale. The main reason I have invested in Monero is to hedge against the risk of Bitcoin not biting the bullet with this hard fork.

Edit: Here is a thread on the subject of the 1 MB max blocksize in Bitcoin and the discussion it generates. https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=709970.0 The technical people understand the need, but there is also considerable fear and opposition.