I am very new to Bitcoin, but have spent the previous 2 weeks reading a looot, BFL is one of the subjects I kept think about for long, will they ever ship? I don't know, 50/50 they have any devices at all! when? delay after delay after delay, you can expect them to ship when the difficulty is 10x, maybe 
I hope they don't ship and refund all that money. GPU mining would suddenly look appealing once again. In fact, I've pondered a few things... What is to say that BFL wasn't bought out or paid off by millionaires who DON'T Want these released, but rather take that deposit money, build these by the droves, and when they are ready, turn them on, mine like heck, hashing over 51% and take over the blockchain... Wouldn't they be able to OWN and control bitcoins at that point? I guess we'll know if it happens because the hash rate will skyrocket.
My other thought is they could start mining at a more gradual rate, bringing a few more on every day, and when people scream loud enough and the law comes knocking on BFL's door they could start shipping a few. Hell, they could even package these used units back up as new units and finally start shipping them, a little at a time meanwhile they continue to mine with the rest earning countless Btc at the purchasers expense. Seems to me that if BFL was on the up and up they'd have shipped and we wouldn't be reading all these posts about 'I've been waiting for mine since October,...'
Don't get me wrong, I'm not wishing harm or scams on anyone here, just thinking like the skeptical cynic that I probably am. Or maybe I'm bitter that I never started mining 2 years ago, haha!