Here's an idea for a blog (and company) that I'd never thought of before, but makes perfect sense: analyze imports for clues to a company's business. Yesterday's attention-getting headline: New 3G Apple iPhone Arrives in North America:

Since mid-March, Apple Inc. and its logistics partners have imported 188 ocean containers of a product type never before declared on its shipping manifests.

Here's an example of the level of detail they provide:

The initial shipments were followed on March 27, April 28, May 6 and May 17 with an additional 44 containers—each containing an estimated 40,000 units of the new phone. The sixteen containers imported by Apple Inc. itself—as opposed to the Quanta subsidiary—were delivered on March 19 and 27 to the Jonestown, Pa. facilities of Ingram Micro, Apple’s U.S. distribution partner.

Unfortunately the blog post reads like a press release, but perhaps that will change now that they're getting some attention from other blogs.

ImportGenius lists 2 products on their site:

• SupplySpy: $199/month to monitor a all shipments from a single supplier or importer
• ImportScan: $399/month for unlimited access per commodity type

Part of their pitch:

"Within minutes of subscribing, you'll have access to lists of all of your competitor's suppliers and all of your supplier's customers in the United States."

Looks useful; I wish them luck.