Bitcoin price dropping and gaining popularity are not mutually exclusive. I think both are happening and they are linked.
Nowadays you can actually spend your bitcoins in so many places, people who have a sizable stash have more incentive to actually use them. I know I do. I can now pay my home delivery pizza with bitcoin, my phone bill, my computer gear, my e-cigs, my 3D printer supplies, .. I could only dream of that a few years ago. So I do it. Of course all the places where I spend my coins, they use coinbase or bitpay and they get paid out in euro/dollar, so all my bitcoin purchases end up being bitcoin sales depressing the price, since IM not replenishing my stash. Im sure many (large) BTC holders are doing the same thing.
Indeed, even at the last rally ($1.2k) there wasn't that many places to spend it at than there are now.
The problem is that we need more merchants that keep the coins, even a % like Overclockers will do for now. I'm more worried about adoption that the current price. We might see a rally before 2015, we might not. That's not even that important right now.