The new ones you might be right.
But some old ones add something to bitcoin, by using the same hashing power via merged mining, adding features such as a database (namecoin), a support structure for supporting free open source stuff (devcoin), and very very fast confirmations (GeistGeld), all without diverting hashing power away from bitcoin.
-MarkM-
There are exceptions to every rule, true. NMC, DVC, PPC are some of them. Still don't see a future for geistgeld but then that's my own opinion.
Still waiting to hear what these new altcoins bring to the table other than tweaks of ltc/btc. Anyone?
Many of them claim fast confirmations is their big innovation, that is the main reason I mentioned GeistGeld.
Basically we already have as fast as you can realistically get, damn near too fast, heck have we even really thoroughly tested it enough to be sure it isn't too fast, and we do it without diverting hashing power from bitcoin. So all the pretense that being fast is so useful are pretty much revealed as just pathetic/transparent pretences, their real motive being to pump and dump, since if they were seriously interested in exploring whether fast blocks can work we already have been trying to have that load-tested for years now and they don't seem to have even bothered with the experiment, preferring to just do another pump and dump...
In essence, "bitcoin CAN do very fast confirmations, simply by merging GeistGeld alongside..."
-MarkM-