Speed is an issue if you are running numeric simulations. There is a difference if your simulation runs 14 days or only 11. Or for gamers, 20 FPS or 60 FPS... There is still a legitimate use for C.
On the other hand most applications, think you average GUI based application, maintenance and development time (time to market for the businessfags) is paramount. C is inappropriate there.
C is not dead, there are only better tools for certain problem domains.