Factors that could play into how mainstream core count changes in the future:
Price: almost goes without saying
Availability: If quad cores were to become nearly unavailable, and 6core was the new minimum, it would obviously have an effect on what sells as mainstream.
Advertisement: the GHz war favored Intel back in the days despite what IPC was doing for AMD. Could that reverse in a core war? Personally, I think most of the IT/enthusiast world is smarter than that this time around. And while enthusiasts are probably not in that mainstream market, they ARE sometimes the go to person for advice for the mainstream buyer.
Hardware Requirement: As above mentioned, if software came out that required more cores and this software was something that became almost as much of a requirement as word, excel, email, social media for the masses, that would have an obvious impact on what would be mainstream.