To me it would have been a better approach for someone like BFL and Avalon to work together on making the CHIP and then create products around that chip.
I agree.
Avalon has already announced their intent to sell bare chips to "integrators" for exactly this kind of thing.
However I believe Yifu has said that he would first commit Seppuku before doing business with BFL, so I guess the products will have to come from other makers.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=161715.0Aside from all the bridge burning Josh did, there is also the NRE to be considered for BFL, that would probably keep them from just packaging up Avalon chips into a nice little release for us. A shame, as this would really have worked out nicely for everyone.