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@h2o
Arguably, Specialised just did what they've done for many - taken a re-emergent subculture of cycling and provide a cheap, no-frills entry-level bike to fill that particular niche.
After all, the first off-the-peg mass-produced fixie was probably made by BSA or Raleigh in the UK, don't know who on the continent.
Specialized did the same thing in the early 80s by selling mountain bikes to people who didn't have the patience to ride touring bikes long distances. Then in the 1990s they sold hybrids to people who would otherwise be putting slick tyres on their MTBs and creaking up and down the road with too much suspension. Then they started sponsoring BMX competitions. Now they're selling fixed wheel bicycles.
I don't think that Specialized has ever been regarded as a real innovator in terms of the craft of bicycle-making, but they have been a great populariser of subcultures - at the expense, of course, of commoditising them and sending a lot of the early-adopters scurrying to the hills of the arcane to find something more 'authentic' to bear back down to earth like Prometheus' frame. Whereupon Specialized will work out a way to produce something similar at volume and low cost, and the cycle will begin again...
These current Langsters remind me of when Top Shop thought it was the height of cool to put meaningless Japanese symbols on cheap cotton shirts and sell 'em for £15-20 a pop.