Maybe not 1000, but how about fifty...or even one for that matter... You completely missed the point. Why aren't they reinvesting their profit in the business in order to deliver for their customers?
I don't know what they are doing as far as that goes, but I do not see any evidence that is not happening. How fast, exactly, can you design an FPGA solution to the specific problem of Bitcoin and deliver it in a nice form factor, from scratch?
Be indebted to one party versus being indebted to every single person who orders a unit? It's bad business; they are trying to milk an interest free loan that people apparently are foolish enough to provide for them.
Yes, because one the R&D is done and you have a shipping product, you do not answer to a VC. In fact, during the design phase, you do not answer to a VC. You are going to say "Well, you answer to customers." Indeed, and you also refund customers and wash your hands of them if you desire, not so with a VC.
So they are ordering these from an assembly house one at a time, or they are grouping them into lots. If they are accumulating a number of orders to hit some sorts of price break, than their delivery dates are nothing more than wild speculation, since as you elaborated above, they have no real way to gauge interest and order rates.
I have no idea what they are doing as far as that goes. My guess is they are ordering small lots.
I assume, Inaba, that you are in some sort of tech field. Do you routinely deliver on your clientele's jobs almost half a year late? It is bad business, plain and simple, regardless of however you and their fan club choose to defend them.
I don't disagree that delivering late product is bad. I also don't disagree that there haven't been mis-steps. What I take umbrage to is the brush you and several others keep trying to paint them with, blowing things out of proportion and nitpicking issues to serve your purpose (trolling). I have no vested interest as to whether they succeed or not, but I call bullshit out when I see it.