Apple Rethinks Inventory Management, Scrambles Online Order Numbers

Apple has made changes to how it handles iPad 2 inventory deliveries and scrambled its online order numbers, according to an AppleInsider report.

Sources tell the site that Apple has decided to have retail stores hold on to new shipments until the next day in an effort to ease the sales process for customers and employees.

A person familiar with Apple's retail operations informed AppleInsider this week that the new shipment of iPad 2 stock sold by some stores on Tuesday was actually delivered on Monday. Apple is said to have elected to hold the inventory for a next-day sale to grant its inventory control specialists the time to "calmly and accurately" process new shipments.

Interestingly, Apple has also decided to scramble its online order numbers to prevent analysts from using them to estimate iPad sales figures.

Last year, for the first-generation iPad launch, enthusiastic users at the Investor Village AAPL Sanity Board compared order numbers and cracked Apple's code to calculate total sales. In response, a person familiar with Apple's ordering systems explained that the company changed its Web order number generating method to a random number.

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