RE: Thoughts on inventory Yasch, my opinion on the inventory.
In the last five Quarters, RIM shipped to Carriers (sell in) about 10M phones
less than were sold ( sell through) to the Retailers
The sell in (shipped) phones to Carriers is what is being considerd as Sales (Revenue)
In the past, they always were shipping more for the Carriers for them to keep in stock ( channel inventory)
So they always were an inventory of phones held by the Carriers ( Verizon, Best Buy, etc)
So presently this channel inventory is very low, thats why the launching of the BB10
in January or February 2013 will be over 20M phones, so as to replenish
the shelf spaces of the Carriers
From Q2 2013.
Brian Bidulka - Chief Financial Officer
And just on -- it's Brian, Gus, in terms of that question on the sell-in versus sell-through. The delta between that sell-in and sell-through has been narrowing over recent quarters, and we continue to see that happening. But again, based on the replenishment rates we're seeing with certain of our partners, it is having an impact on the restocking. So we'll continue to see that. But we have seen it coming down in the most recent quarters.
RIM ASP ( average selling price) was up to $228 per unit because they are shipping and selling
the newer BB7 phones.
FQ2 2013 Inventory
Raw materials $786M
Work in progress $379M
Finished goods $105M
Total $1.27B
Provision for obsolete inventories $485M .... net inventory $785M
So the intentory that is shown is not really only phones, for instance we can say
that the inventory of $785M that is shown as total is all made up of raw material
Remember too, the $485M is really that RIM from RIM's profit
and put aside in case there is a future loss on its phones
Sorry, Yasch I will stop... don't want to give you another headache.