Panasonic Lumix Camera Olympic Edition

Panasonic released a new edition of Lumix with Olympic trademarks and camera case.  The retail price is 299.99 Canadian dollars.  Although it has 8 times optical zoom, I don't exact know the benefit of shelling out extra 300 dollars plus tax to buy a point and shoot camera if you already have one.
http://www.panasonic.ca/english/whatsnew.asp