Pretty much no one is going to make a profit on most other miners either. If/when they get it.
So you're saying that if you had $39 in your pocket, and you converted it into BTC and purchased a miner with it.. you mine it for a year or two, and you will never get your $39 back? What if a BTC suddenly climbs to $10,000 in a couple of years.. and this only generated 0.2 BTC at that time (a net BTC loss), you would still have $2000? If these can make 0.01 BTC in 3-4 days, who's to say that 0.01 BTC isn't worth >$40 soon?
When you decide to buy an ASIC miner you are deciding to buy a variable stream of BTC. If one can estimate the total expected BTC, then one can price that BTC and compare it to buying BTC off an exchange. If you can get the BTC off an exchange for a lot less, then the miner will not yield good investment returns compared to just buying BTC.
People purchase these for different reasons. I have many of these purring away right now and I have already earned over 20-30% of their cost. If at the end of the year they have only earned 60% that's okay with me. It's better than pre-ordering a BFL and a year later it hasn't arrived, at least with these you can do your profit calculations knowing that it will be in your hand in a day or so.
Thats fine. I consider them superior to BFL as well, since the USB sticks actually exist.
These make an excellent choice for first-timers of Bitcoin particularly, even though holding BTC is an even better way to guarantee profits.
I wouldn't say guarantee, but otherwise I agree.
There is also the PPCoin angle. If you point yours at PP, there is a chance that by the end of the year the PPCoin hashrate skyrockets and block reward plummets, and you could convert your PP into BTC at a profit.
Perhaps.
*Who knows* what will happen in this crypto world, and what the best choices are, but don't hate on the USB miner because they are "outrageously" priced at 0.39 BTC! I remember paying 40 BTC for a 5870 not long ago. If you want a miner, buy one, if not, keep it to yourself!
Why shouldn't the math be posted? That is the fundamental nature of bitcoin itself, it is based entirely on mathematics.
