Well obviously they're going to turn them on at some point and try realistic tests. Everyone's all like "The testnet will get damaged by a giant spike in speed." Whatever, it's a freaking test net lol. They're the ones that should be using it!
The only question is who has them in their hands? There's only 2 companies that would based on the evidence and one's BFL. Given each of their release dates, you just compare it to the development of every phone, gaming console, computer part, ETC. If they're shipping in November, they have some in their hands now. That's practically a law of physics when it comes to new product development. It takes XX amount of days to test, box, label, and ship stuff so they do have some functional units in their hands at the moment but just barely.
+1
I would gather that other smaller ASIC developers would be tempted to sell their coins (hopefully in a slow orderly manner) to try and recoup their development investment even before filling orders.
