The main news would be that they are dividing the free and Pro versions more strictly:
SketchUp Make is the same as the previously free version, but now it can't be used for commercial work
SketchUp Pro now with a price of 590$ and a yearly support cost of 95$
So, if you still want to keep using the free version, stick with SketchUp 8
The release notes here:http://help.sketchup.com/en/article/141303
From the user responses I can see that there have been good improvements in speed and stability, most noticeably with many of the plugins. The program opens up much faster as well.
They have addressed one of the biggest problems - the toolbars, and they implemented a plugin repository providing a built in extension warehouse to make plugins instantly visible to millions of people, that includes a notification for version updates and easy installisation of plugins, that had been a huge request by the plugin developers.
Looks like the changes, like the introduction of the new SDK, and the support for plugin developers, increasingly point toward SketchUp being as a platform, for Trimble's services and third party tools, so that the user could shape the program to ones own needs. And seeing what amount of attention LayOut is getting, SketchUp Pro seems to be looking as a better and better package.
It is speculated that at the end of the year SketchUp should receive a huge maintenance release, concentrating on things like improvements for the Ruby API. If so, that should really shed some light to what direction is Trimble actually going with SketchUp.