To those who think design is subjective:
So why does Apple and all the other successful companies pour millions and millions into design?
In my line of work and in this case the design has to be right on a number of different levels such as the following: composition (balance, whitespace, hierarchy, colour, depth, simplicity) as well as typography.
Xero knew how important design is - hence the 'beautiful accounting software' tag line.
If the above links are Intuit's core design skills -
then Xero has already won.
Customer experience is everything - and on a screen - design plays the main role.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE