Litecoin is a less hostile environment for newcomers to the crypto currency market. You can still earn coins with a CPU and can do very well with a GPU. It is currently more profitable to mine than any other coin, even propped up Novacoin. While litecoin hasn't been immune to trouble, it does have a pretty good group involved in it and more infrastructure than other alternates.
For someone new to Bitcoin, Litecoin is an easy way to get involved in mining without having to buy dedicated hardware. Bitcoin mining is no longer new user friendly.
Agreed and just to add my thoughts to this, I think spectators and analysts sometimes underestimate the powerful effect miners have on the economy. If miners move more and more to litecoin the impact will have a massive long term 'trickle up' effect with the added bonus of not affecting bitcoin since btc's infrastructure is so solid and growing exponentially now.
