Interesting. Are you saying that this inventory can still be listed under Cash & Equivalents (1,986M on 28/5/2011) on balance sheet? Or is it under Accounts Receivable (3,772M)? Does Total inventory (943M) then has phones that are not yet shipped?
If you check your link's "Balance Sheet" tab, you'll see inventory listed under Assets as "Total Inventory". It would most certainly not be listed as Cash & Equivalents.
Yeah, I was curious because it doesn't sound likely that shipped-but-not-sold phones would be listed under Cash & Equivalents (which is ~ $2B). But if his math about value of shipped phones ($3B) is approximately correct, then it doesn't fit under Total Inventory (<$1B) either, so it must be under Receivables (~3-4B), right?
(Values are from latest Balance Sheet data http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:RIMM&fstype=ii )
I've recently started to learn to read financials more carefully, but all these nuances of corporate accounting can make it a fruitless effort.