My thinking. Although Im certain they would call it, "... a response to a particular market need."

My other thought is this: perhaps we should be grateful that a major consumer manufacturer would deem it worthy to make something like this, at all.
Soon the Gap, Old Navy and a host of others are liable to follow suit, and competition usually causes the price to adjust down.**

Not to mention, it could add another tiny dust-mote of awareness for the bicycle as serious transport.


**(However, as with all things 'cycling', this may not be the case)