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a bootloader is a small piece of firmware on the PIC which can communicate with external devices (usually a PC via serial COM or USB) and 'upload' the rest of the program on to the PIC flash memory.
so instead of connecting the PIC to a PIC-programmer, just connect the PIC to the PC, run the bootoloader software and can program it without the need of an separated circuit (a PIC-programmer)
of course you need to program the bootloader firmware the PIC the first time, (by a conventional PIC programmer), but once i'ts done, you could use the bootloader to do the rest of the programming..
it's very useful for 'updating' or 'upgrade' firmware in-situ, for example, if you have an application (connected to a PC) you could send an 'update' to your client, and it will only need to start the bootloading software, reboot the pic, and it'll upgrade without changing the PIC or connecting aditional hardware..
of course! not every PIC application needs a bootloader, (a small PIC even doesn't have enought space or self-programming capabilities to implement bootloading) and with the microchip ICSP programming method, it's not so hard to leave a few pins free to connect a ICSP pic Programmer (like the PICkit) and make the 'upgrades' easily
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