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I wish journalists were forced to distinguish between "shipped" and "sold" numbers. Those figures can differ dramatically, and often in very telling ways. Who c

I wish journalists were forced to distinguish between "shipped" and "sold" numbers. Those figures can differ dramatically, and often in very telling ways. Who cares if Samsung shipped 20MM phones? How many phones did they sell? How large is their platform base, in terms of real, honest users?

yardie 15y ago
This is a redherring because the difference between shipped and sold is very small. Retailers don't keep more stock than they actually need. Except for high demand items and new products if it ships it's practically sold. Unlike Apple, once the phone leaves the factory Samsung has very little information on where it will end up. They could call every retailer and ask for the quantity sold, but if they weren't selling the retailer would ship them back, ala Best Buy and the HP Touchpad.
- ryannielsen 15y ago
  http://allthingsd.com/20110816/ouchpad-best-buy-sitting-on-a-pile-of-unsold-hp-tablets/ http://allthingsd.com/20110816/ouchpad-best-buy-sitting-on-a... At least according to this article, HP shipped 270,000 TouchPads to Best Buy. Best Buy, in turn, sold 25,000. Anyone estimating the number of TouchPad users based on HP's shipment numbers to Best Buy would have been off by over an order of magnitude. (Before the $99 fire sale, of course.) So it's clear that, at least in some cases, the difference between shipped and sold units can be quite dramatic. Without getting the actual number of units sold, minus the number of units returned, (or getting some other stat entirely, such as unit activation/registration numbers) it's rather difficult to accurately estimate a product's actual user base. The best you can do with the shipping unit number is guess, and your guess is as good as mine.
  - ugh 15y ago
    But that’s because the TouchPad was a failure. Samsung’s phones are actually selling.
  - yardie 15y ago
    This is why I excluded high demand and new products. New products are shipped in higher quantities to meet retailer demand (ever been in a store that has exactly one new item?). But once the supply pipeline is flowing its much easier to estimate demand and produce enough to meet it. This is something that Apple has been terrible at despite great marketing. But all companies will parade the numbers that show them in the best light. Samsung isn't producing a lot of tablets just to dump them in landfills and retailers aren't stocking more than they can realistically sell in <1 months time. For the retailer it ties up money and floorspace. Apple owns all it's stores and can tell you exactly how many iPhones they have sold, they won't tell you how many Apple TVs they've sold even though they know that number. Samsung might be able to tell you how many tablets sold. But numbers shipped is more palatable to investors and developers. If they were getting a lot of returns (and early android tablets were) they wouldn't exactly parade them out.

yardie 15y ago

This is a redherring because the difference between shipped and sold is very small. Retailers don't keep more stock than they actually need. Except for high demand items and new products if it ships it's practically sold. Unlike Apple, once the phone leaves the factory Samsung has very little information on where it will end up. They could call every retailer and ask for the quantity sold, but if they weren't selling the retailer would ship them back, ala Best Buy and the HP Touchpad.

ryannielsen 15y ago
http://allthingsd.com/20110816/ouchpad-best-buy-sitting-on-a-pile-of-unsold-hp-tablets/ http://allthingsd.com/20110816/ouchpad-best-buy-sitting-on-a... At least according to this article, HP shipped 270,000 TouchPads to Best Buy. Best Buy, in turn, sold 25,000. Anyone estimating the number of TouchPad users based on HP's shipment numbers to Best Buy would have been off by over an order of magnitude. (Before the $99 fire sale, of course.) So it's clear that, at least in some cases, the difference between shipped and sold units can be quite dramatic. Without getting the actual number of units sold, minus the number of units returned, (or getting some other stat entirely, such as unit activation/registration numbers) it's rather difficult to accurately estimate a product's actual user base. The best you can do with the shipping unit number is guess, and your guess is as good as mine.
- ugh 15y ago
  But that’s because the TouchPad was a failure. Samsung’s phones are actually selling.
- yardie 15y ago
  This is why I excluded high demand and new products. New products are shipped in higher quantities to meet retailer demand (ever been in a store that has exactly one new item?). But once the supply pipeline is flowing its much easier to estimate demand and produce enough to meet it. This is something that Apple has been terrible at despite great marketing. But all companies will parade the numbers that show them in the best light. Samsung isn't producing a lot of tablets just to dump them in landfills and retailers aren't stocking more than they can realistically sell in <1 months time. For the retailer it ties up money and floorspace. Apple owns all it's stores and can tell you exactly how many iPhones they have sold, they won't tell you how many Apple TVs they've sold even though they know that number. Samsung might be able to tell you how many tablets sold. But numbers shipped is more palatable to investors and developers. If they were getting a lot of returns (and early android tablets were) they wouldn't exactly parade them out.