Obviously there are other competitors, and there always will be. However, we have means to scale up production speed to compensate for lost time. Again, if anyone is interested please PM me.
Development is still development and there is nothing you can do to speed that up. So you are still looking at 6 months out even if you have scale. Sure you'll pump out a lot of units that first batch but it will still take you 6 months.
And the CBA is more than likely going to not be in your favor at that point because first you are late to the party and second difficulty will be very high at the point when you start development. So the potential for getting buyers will be low as they will gravitate to know and proven sellers.
What scale is your fabricator at? Seems to me the way you are talking you really don't have a clue about chip engineering. If you have access to an ASIC chip fabricator then you already have access to engineers that can design those chips. Your fabricator should already have partners that can do it if they don't already have engineers in house. Something is fishy here.
To honestly answer your question, you are correct in that I have no experience with chip engineering. This lack of understanding is the reason for my post. If I were a skilled chip engineer in addition to my bizdev skills, I wouldn't be here! I simply have access to a manufacturing plant and capital, so I'm seeking consultation in the arena of Scrypt and ASIC expertise.