It would be nice, now we know they can be trusted, to have a "not to ship" option where you pay chinese eectricity rates and a small fee to have it mine away for you in China. they would have free heating and warranty replacements would take ten minutes.
Later you can have the miner shipped to your home as "used" without customs.
That's a great idea, those nice Chinese will just send you Bitcoins while you just sit on your ass at home.
Doesn't that seem a bit strange to you?
I prefer to lay on the couch with my laptop. It was my suggestion, not their's. Hosted mining has been suggested before with GPU's.
I don't think it's thats strange a suggestion, especially when electricity costs are low compared to hashrate ATM. You have it hosted so renting of capacity is also possible gpumax style. resale / buyback is also easy.
Compared to the hassle with customs, especially for european customers, and shipping costs of 10%, it's attractive.
The producer could save on cases and PSU's and they would have added protection against reverse enginering if their next model is not released to the public.
Sure the concept could be used for a scam, with simulated miners, but it's a risk comparable to preordering. With their first shipment they proved that they pocess the tech, wich is more than others have.