The comments on the Boing Boing article are great- they really show the gamut of emotional reactions people have to ‘design’ and the meanings that get pushed onto objects. I like how an ‘ugly’ object becomes likeable when it works well.
Leica fans ‘know’ that it is a ‘better’ design and this probably affects how they use it in a positive way. Interestingly the Panasonic gets points for being better to hold. It would be great to remove price out of the equation and see what peoples reactions are then.