I would say it is even simpler than that, speed and power usage are nothing if you can't put them into context along with the cost of purchase. How much GH/BTC is the only formula anybody need to know to.
true, that boils it down as long as that shipping date doesn't slip after you do your calculations
There are much more and better choices of competent ASIC mining companies to choose from. No one will be able to abuse their in stock monopoly like ASICMiner did when they have only BFL and Avalon to make them look good in comparison (lesser of the 3 evils).
It will be interesting to see how this rolls out, don't forget how big boys play like when Avalon shipped chips to that Swiss company instead of the group buys.. same can happen with HF & Cointerra or even KnC if the price is right
One funny thing with HF's MPP is that they should just ship more chips up front since everyone will know a ballpark ROI once they get to actually shipping miners. They can make a nice correction then since it will cost the same to them then as it does months later when they do their calculations up to 400% yadda yadda. If it is capped at 400% what is the true gain of seeing if they somehow DON'T have to ship up to 400% on the MPP?
All that MPP stuff is a total gimmick.. if they gave more upfront, that would scare away more buyers of later batches that it wont help as much but see diff climb even more, but they hope this MPP makes the current customers feel they aren't that screwed and will get some carrot on a stick later