Everything is a matter of perspective. One neat thing about ASICs is that if they work as intended, even the small fry will be profitable for a long time. To whit:
http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/?difficulty=993438908.9602&hashrate=60000&exchangerate=12.42&bitcoinsperblock=25.00&rigcost=1300&powerconsumption=60&powercost=0.10&investmentperiod=355
Probably not the best example... Did you notice the Net Profit line? Or the 15 year payoff? http://tpbitcalc.appspot.com/?difficulty=993438908.9602&hashrate=60000&exchangerate=12.42&bitcoinsperblock=25.00&rigcost=1300&powerconsumption=60&powercost=0.10&investmentperiod=355
BitBlitz, I was not suggesting anyone BUY in to asics at 1billion difficulty. The point was that even a small miner who already had one (hopefully someone bought it waaaaay earlier) could leave it hashing away even if other people jacked the difficulty up to 1 billion later on, which presumably would take quite a long time being a Three-Thousand percent increase in difficulty/hashpower and still make monies.
Would I recommend buying an ASIC of the current gen specs if difficulty were at 1 billion? Of course not.