Im really surprised people still trust Innosilicon with their track record of underperforming miners and slow delivery among many other things. I get we all want cheap miners and competition, but theyve already been known to deliver less than acceptable products.
The miners were FAR from cheap. At the time of announcement, it cost $10,000 USD for an A5 specced at 30.2 GH/s drawing 750w was definitely overpriced compared to the D3 that had just come out a few days or a week prior at 15 GH/s drawing 1200w. The D3's cost? I believe it was $2600~2700 USD for that first batch.
I think a lot of miners, myself included, wanted to give Innosilicon the benefit of the doubt. IF they delivered on time with promised specs, they'd prove all the haters wrong. Innosilicon proved them all right. You try to give any competitors to Bitmain the benefit of the doubt and you're going to get screwed for it. I hate the way Bitmain is pumping out D3s like candy, flooding the market, and killing the difficulty for us, but I still see them as the lesser evil in every case. At the very least, they deliver on time.