Is that 19,000 number accurate or an exaggeration? source?
Buying in at this point is a risky proposition. Perhaps even across your suggested 12 month period I would likely wait for hardware. The price of BTC is at a record high, and I have been around long enough to know what is likely coming.
EDIT:
- thanks for the link to the forum; didn't realise there was a BFL forum.
- I saw a post with something about 16,000 queue which makes your 19,000 figure look a little more credible: Are all the ASIC chips common for all units, so every BFL product (and the entire queue of pre sales) is waiting on the same chips?
Don't listen to cdog. Bitcointalk is filled with people of 2 different camps: Those who have orders with BFL, and those who think BFL is the devil incarnate. He's obviously of the latter mindset.
There are 19,000 order numbers, but they started at ~1600, and only paid order numbers actually get shipped. It ends up resulting in a lot of false numbers that aren't really orders at all. I myself went thru 7 order numbers before I finally bought my first SC Single (due to wallet problems), so there aren't actually 19,000 people in front of you.
BFL has not shipped any ASIC products as of yet, but
Josh/Inaba's announcement thread will keep you up to date. Yes, BFL will use the same chips across all 4 products, but some units use more (1 chip for the Jalapeno, vs 200 for the MR).
Current estimates are that early pre-orders will ship sometime this month, and orders placed now will ship sometime early summer. You're looking at maybe a 3 month delay last I heard?