I have to say I think it is more of a money grab to start these chains when bitcoin is still in its infancy. While I guess they want to start before bitcoin has a firm grasp I don't think the market can support all these different online currencies.
The point of all the alternative coins is
ONLY TO TRADE FOR BTC,
you can't use the alt-coins anywhere and they will die out soon. I feel sorry for the guys buying them all up... trading precious btc for useless ix/iocoins.