The problem right now is phone availability. There are no new releases and others are due for upgrade, hence the decline and those who stay are waiting for windows 10.

Because desktop pc will also become a niche device in the future just like what they're planning with windows desktop. A lot of people now use touch and light and mobile devices, Microsoft's answer to this is the Metro UI. For the developers, they only need to focus on the desktop and it's basically the same thing with some improvements because after all this will be the source to create the Metro UI apps. Besides you will only see the Metro UI when opening something. We are developers so it should be given that we are already familiar with the keyboard shortcuts to access things we want to accomplish.

Probably the reason is it's too english (readable) as compared to C# or C++ where the syntax looks nerdy. When non programmers look at a VB language they can understand some parts of it as compared to C# or C++ and also the reason why some programmers sees it as "kid's" language. I personally use VB and I think it is just as capable as C# or most languages out there.