. . . jackstraw62 has serial number 30 but his order number is 198. My point is that order number is a poor indication of the number of clouds produced.
And you're absolutely correct. That was my point, too. There is possibly more nuance here, though. For example, ordinarily order numbers are assigned upon order receipt (in this case, that would be when pre-order is converted to real order). However, when a company builds backlog (as VXC has), an order may not be assigned a number until it is released, which typically happens when inventory or scheduled inventory can be allocated to it. Whatever the method, the order numbers are usually an approximation of units shipped plus committed for shipment.
Serial numbers indicate the amount and sequence point of production. They do not necessarily correlate at all to order numbers. E.g., units may be pulled off the shelf in random order, not FIFO. Or, as in the case of the Cloud package where there are 2 finished goods that comprise the final product, i.e., the Cloud and the HT, it's conceivable that one item can be allocated while the other time is being waited for. This could have easily happened if availability of Clouds got ahead of HT availability, a possibility given the SGW damaged shipment.
From all this and other considerations, there are only two high probability conclusions: First, more Clouds have been produced than shipped. Second, conjecture about future order fulfillment, while harmless, is still pretty fruitless.
