Ok. I asked this in another thread already, but HERE, I particularly do not understand where a lot of you are coming from.
First off, no matter what you WILL achieve ROI, so I have to assume you mean POSITIVE ROI. But even given that niggle, there is virtually no way these machines will not reach break even in a fairly short time, after which your only ongoing expense is electricity, which is not that great of an expense on these devices.
So, those of you crying "no ROI" over and over again, WHAT FREAKIN" TIME FRAME ARE YOU TRYING TO BEAT?
I mean really. An ivestment that is likely to break even in less than a year??? That's insanely positive by most any business metric you care to apply! There are many investors who do not intend to break even for decades in other areas of business. I think the doom and gloom shows a deep lack of belief in the long term viability of bitcoin itself. I don't know how representative you are, but if you, the hardcore miners, are this concerned about the short term, then perhaps the experiment has already failed.
Or you just aren't thinking it through.
In the long term, bitcoin will succeed or fail based on just one thing. Acceptance by the markets.
THAT is what you ALL should be focusing on. If the coin does not purchase anything, it is worthless. If it does, it is not. The wider it's acceptance, given it's built in scarcity, the greater it's long term value. Thus, if you get declining returns from your miner (somewhat inevitable) but the market grows, then your ROI is directly positively affected. OTOH, if a lot of miners throw their hands in the air and their machines in the dustbin, the difficulty drops, and the miners that remain grab buckets full of bitcoin, it won't matter at all if the markets do not accept it as a viable unit of exchange.
Personally, I think it's really only a few short sighted individuals making a lot of noise, but do think about what you are saying about the long term of this experiment before deciding that break even has to occur the day after tomorrow or there is no profit.