I was just thinking of another option which would be a dirty move.
If Bitmain really wanted to mess with Canaan they could under cut them and instead of releasing 1000-2000 units as a batch they could drip feed releases of around 100 S9 daily while they wait for more chips and then repeat the process over and over again so everyone is constantly waiting and trying to score a cheap s9's instead of 821's. ha ha