Why should anyone bother with Avalon or BFL when you can get other chips that are faster, more efficient and delivered on time with companies that are actually polite, responsive and supportive when you develop DIY boards? Note that many are also offering "protection" against the vagaries of the difficulty spikes...
Oh how history is soon forgotten...
I think the key here isn't promises made beforehand, but delivery as promised. We have yet to see if KnC, BitFury, etc will actually deliver on anything thus far promised! Lets see how that "protection" works if/when they slip dates... Remember BFL was heralded as the king of ASICs this time a year ago, and they were selling with PayPal so you'll get your money back if they don't deliver as promised in "two weeks"(tm)!
BITFURY delivered. On time.
And... I haven't forgotten what Avalon and BFL promised. Nor will I forget how they delivered. Infact we are working with BitFury chips right now... it took only 3 days to get them delivered vs. 3 weeks late on developer chips for Avalon and still not a sign or email etc about our huge lot of Avalon chips. Go figure eh? Boycott Avalon simple solution.