Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Your first question comes from Ross Seymore - Deutsche Bank Securities.
Ross Seymore - Deutsche Bank Securities
I guess the first question is just on the guidance looking out into the next quarter. It seems like this is the third quarter in a row you're basically guiding to backlog, not assuming any turns. You've upsided the last two quarters you did that. Are you being equally conservative again or does the seasonality change some aspect of the turns potential that you have in this quarter?
Mark S. Frey
So, Ross, you read it right. I think there's two moving parts here, I think.
The first is that I think all of us recognize that this cycle is not your average cycle, and so we're making sure that our own expectations are on the careful side of things to make sure that we don't get inventory out ahead of ourselves and so forth.
I think the second part is also important, which is that normally there is a dead period in the OEMs at the end of December and early in January. And, again, this year could play out differently, but certainly the historical pattern is that it will be down slightly. So we've tried to reflect that in our estimates.
Ross Seymore - Deutsche Bank Securities
I guess a follow on question, kind of with the same general idea behind it, is by my calculations you guys have earned about $85 million worth of channel inventory. Do you think there's something in the channel that either leads them to be able to operate at a lower inventory level more sustainably or is that something that, when we get into 2010, you know, even if your total revenue didn't change from a demand perspective, you would have to refill some of that channel?
Mark S. Thompson
Well, Ross, we certainly put a lot of effort into trying to manage with less inventory, so I guess I would regard our current stance in the mid 9s as a little bit experimental. And, you know, obviously we've never operated the company there. We have good reason to believe that we can, but we always know when we get there that we're going to have to do a little bit of tuning.
We've certainly created a lot more granularity and are bringing on some supply chain tools which will actually give us much more real-time visibility, translating the POS reports directly back to consequences at the factory.
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