2X the speed over USB 3.0 (to fuel the next gen performance which I need for external devices!)
Oh Jesus, WHAT "next gen performance"? Can you even afford a decently sized external SSD and if yes, why would you buy it over a mechanical drive at this point? And wouldn't 500-600 MB/s that the current USB 3.0 can max out at be enough for it?
Reversible Plug (finally!!)
Oh yes, I think that's the best innovation in the last 5 years. A reversible USB plug! What a huge deal!
100A power (enough to charge even a laptop)
OK, so I can now charge my laptop from my desktop... what's the point?
Maintain the ubiquitous-ness one expects so its available in all mobos unlike DOA Thunderbolt.
That's the only valid thing out of your list. Though one could, you know, simple stay with USB 3.0 and get the same effect.
USB3.0 was great at the time but its time to once more progress and grow up as I demand far more speed and sustainability from my externals, thanks!
And your demands were answered! You're now free to spend more money on speed and features you don't really need!
What a time to be alive!
If you need so much speed from your -externals- perhaps your building it wrong.
Not necessarily, I like my external drives, though as I stated above, the current USB 3.0 standard satisfies everything people can actually afford at this point and in the near future.
USB type C is NOT Smaller!! "USB Type-C (left) is larger than Lightning (center) or micro USB (right), but the increased size and sturdiness will make it a better replacement for the ports it wants to supplant."
Perhaps I should have specified what it is smaller than. A Type A USB, that is. Which is why Nokia's new tablet is using Type C - it fits on thin devices, unlike the Type A we use in laptops and desktops.
USB 3.1 is very exciting, as you can send data, power and display signal through the same cable at the same time. You could power and drive a monitor with just one cable from your computer.
Pretty sure the whole daisy-chain concept failed to excite people with Thunderbolt already. It's just not worth paying so much extra for...
When it's implemented in TV's, you can have media sticks (like the Chromecast) that no longer need a separate cable for power. Just stick it in the TV and go!
... and neither is this. Modern TVs have at least two USBs on the back for that purpose.
Look guys. The bottom line is: innovation is great and I approve of both USB Type C and 3.1 a lot. They just aren't the features worth paying for yet. I expect ultrabooks and tablets to get Type C (and not necessarily even with 3.0 speeds by the way!) in the near future (that's what it was designed for), but you'll need adapters. USB 3.1 will make its way to desktops but it won't really give you any advantage over USB 3.0. When the latter came out, you could instantly (or at least soon enough) grab a USB 3.0 enabled hard drive and acquire 4-5x the transfer speed (essentially maxing out any HDD's available bandwidth, which resulted in ludicrous slowdowns of the OS installed on an HDD when you were copying large files from it to an external USB 3.0 HDD) of your USB 2.0 extHDD.
But what are you going to do with USB 3.1? Starve for a few months and get an M.2 Samsung SSD with 3D stacked NAND in a USB 3.1 enclosure just to prove the point? Charge your laptop from the desktop instead of using the dedicated charger? Go ahead, waste your money. I'll just buy an add-in PCIe card when and if it's really required. So far I don't see a reason.