We would have to see some GH/watt numbers, BUT the competition has 'about to ship' complete* systems that are 28nm. They claim 400GH@850watts - also the kicker ~ under $5k USD
IMO 55nm is dead before it ships.
We're still pretty far from watts/GH/s being a deciding factor. I'm more interested in how much faster Avalon's gen 2 actually is. If it's on par with other designs, I'd expect around 1GH/s per chip. That's about triple the current generation, and actually makes ROI possible.
Anyway, I requested a refund for my order (>4000 chips). If everyone does the same, it gives Steamboat some bargaining power. 10,000*6 is a lot of chips...