[toni-a]

For me looks like a cheap well known marketing trick, double the price for an item, then sell it one week later at 50% discount, some fast food chain restaurants in Qatar follow this strategy: they are on paper very expensive, however they give 50% discount coupons for practically everybody, once the 50% rebate applied they are in line with the market prices.
The customer feels he has saved money, however he just paid the regular price.
Same here, the customer will see the price of the Leica version then compare, find the panasonic cheaper and better and buy, while feeling he saved money.....
The actual objective is to sell Panasonic lenses....even if they sell zero leicas, it's still profitable, if they manage to sell, it's even better