I sort of doubt that, you would want to use the mining equipment as soon as you get it because more efficient equipment would/could come out between now and then making your profits a lot less or even your equipment obsolete
This is true. They could also be mining a different coin or chain then switching over. All speculation I guess.
Not with bitcoin - ASICS are the only profitable way to mine. They only work on sha256 coins, and generally crypto currencies that use the same POW have similar difficulty/profitability.