Analyst: Apple Maintains Just 5 Day Product Inventory
8:55 am, March 5th, 2009, Ed Sutherland
Apple maintains an average five day inventory on products, with Cupertino outdistancing its PC rivals, an analyst said Thursday.
Financial analysis firm UBS said Dell was the closest PC maker, keeping inventory in stock for just a week, according to checks during the December quarter.
While China’s Lenovo maintained a 15-day inventory average, top PC maker HP had stock sitting an average of 32 days, according to UBS. Chip-making giant Intel turned-over inventory in 89 days. The record went to D-Link with 131 days of inventory.
The speed of product turnover can indicate how well a company is able to gauge consumer demand. Too much inventory can leave firms floating in excess products, while under-estimating demand can leave a manufacturer flat-footed.
Apple’s tight inventory may have been the result of the company clearing shelves of older Mac products to make way for refreshed iMacs and Mac minis unveiled earlier this week.
Posted by Ed Sutherland in News | Comment on this article
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Fabio, on March 5th, 2009 at 9:29 am
This is even more astounding if you realize Dell’s low inventory is done by sleight of hand. They have tons of inventory sitting at the dock. Their suppliers park trailers of the stuff, waiting until Dell cracks the doors before moving them on the books. It’s like saying you’re down to your last six-pack of Pabst Blue Ribbon because you haven’t moved the 6 cases in the garage to your fridge.
Doubly impressive is that it probably includes Apple Store stock too. Unless that’s off the books, and then Apple can just dump a bunch of inventory into the stores so the shelves look bare on inventory days. And UBS wouldn’t know anything about hiding assets, would they?
imajoebob, on March 6th, 2009 at 7:23 am