I was asking exactly this same question 1 year ago and I ended up with the 241. The 241 might be my favorite of all my saws, but I'm still not sure I made the right decision given how close it is to the 261.
The 241 is seriously impressive. It's a good bit ligher than the 261. Full of gas and oil, the 241 w/ 14" bar and picco chain is 12lbs, 10.6 oz, while the 261 w/ 18" bar and 325 chain is 15 lbs 2.6 oz. But if you put a 16" on the 261 and the gap narrows - particularly the new lighter-weight 325 bars stihl is releasing this spring.
Also impressive for the 241 is that with the Picco chain it cuts damn near as fast as the 261 with .325. The picco chain is cutting a narrower path, and the reduced effort required nearly compensates for the reduced power of the saw. But again, stihl's new lightweight bar / narrow kerf 325 chain is supposed to be 15% faster should make the 261 pull away more here.
Based on my experience so far - if all you want is a saw to cut hundreds of 2"-5" branches, skip the 241 and get something lighter. I read somewhere that the 201c-em is supposed to be getting lighter (8.1 lbs?) and more powerful this spring. A lot of people crap on it for being a strange compact design, but you'll also find some die hard supporters. It's also expensive. $700+ for a 35cc saw is just offensive, and is what pushed me over the edge to go with the 241.
There's also the Echo 361p which is similar specs to the 201c-em, or even the 2511WES (not for sale yet in the US but there are links you can buy overseas and have delivered) which is insanely light. If you port the 2511WES it's supposedly nearly as powerful as a 201c and 2.5-3 lbs lighter. That's crazy.
However, where the 241 shines is if you want a saw that is light-ish for limbing but can also fly through wood with the 14" bar burried. When I start limbing at the top of the tree and work my way down, I don't stop and switch saws when the tree starts getting bigger. I just keep going until the 14" bar is burried. And I'm usually thinking, "I can't believe this little saw is doing this well in this sized wood." If this sounds appealing to you, then the 241 is the saw you want hands down.
So bottom line - if you don't mind overlap, get the 241. You'll use it and probably love it. But if you plan to do a crap-load of limbing and want the lightest saw possible, or having 2 saws that majorly overlap, go 201, Echo 361p, or Echo 2511WES.
Right now I have a 241, 261 (MMWS ported to help separate it from the 241) and a 462. If I could only have 2 saws, it would be a ported 241 and a 462 - no questions asked.
If I could have 3 saws, would I replace the 241 with a 201? Never having tried a 201, I'm not sure... but possibly yeah. Particularly the rumored new lighter faster variant. The 241 and 261 are just so close it seems silly. Then again, the nice thing about having overlapping saws is that when you send one one away to get ported you have something to use in the mean time.
tl;dr - I don't know, and it depends what you are looking for.