Why litecoin?

[Topazan]

I never paid too much attention to alternate cryptocurrencies, so apologies if this has already been discussed, but lately it seems people have been getting really excited about litecoin.

Of all the various choices, why are people so optimistic about this one?

I guess my main question is: what does it do that bitcoin doesn't?  What utility do you expect litecoin to have that bitcoin doesn't exceed?

If I was going to pick any alternate coin, it would be one that introduces some innovation, such as namecoin.