05-25-2008, 04:13 PM

Here’s an intriguing report from ImportGenius, a search engine that gathers “competitive intelligence” by monitoring U.S. Customs records of ocean containers entering American ports.

Searching for shipments to Apple, Inc. (AAPL), employees at the Scottsdale, Ariz., company reported on Friday that they’ve spotted a “major spike” since mid March in ocean containers marked with a mysterious new label: “electric computers”

“They have never before reported this product on their customs declarations,” says ImportGenius managing director Ryan Peterson, who notes that there has been no corresponding falloff during this period of shipments labeled “desktop computers” or any of the other labels Apple usually uses.

“The fact that they are importing millions of units, combined with dwindling stocks of the first generation of iPhones,” persuades Peterson that these “electric computers” are, in fact, the 3G iPhones Apple is expected to release in a matter of weeks.

He makes a strong case, citing records of a total of 188 ocean containers shipped to Apple from two trusted Asian suppliers, Hon Hai Precision Corp. and Quanta Computer.

For example, on March 19 Apple took delivery from Quanta of 20 containers of merchandise, described on the Bills of Lading as “electric computers.”

05-25-2008, 05:28 PM

Wow, that's quite an interesting way to verify a rumor. Who would think to analyze custom declarations? Kudos on that one.

This seems to just further confirm the arrival of a new iPhone soon.

05-25-2008, 08:46 PM

that is some serious stuff going on behind the scenes

05-27-2008, 02:52 PM

They briefly touched on this on last Sunday's TWIT.

05-27-2008, 02:58 PM

Very interesting. It makes sense I suppose to predict what's coming next with what 'stuff' is shipped into a country.