The Math of Undertracking

[amirnetz]

redspear said:

Yes but they can get whatever number they announce through multiple means without having to be specific. For instance this could also be 360's sitting in the warehouse with a promise of being sold...If you think that is illegal Sony used to do that all the time to inflate their numbers by a few million and it is perfectly legal. In factg PR statements are given a HUGE amount of flexibility in how they can present "facts" because essentially they are like one big ad. They can not represent false facts but they can be real "facts" dressed up to look much better.

We used to go through this debate all the time whenever Sony released a PR. One other trick Sony used to like to do is announce the number of PAL systems sold worldwide through SCEE. Its a business and first thing a business does is promote itself.

Also for any type of statistic like this allow around 5% margin of error up or down unless you know the sampling methods or pool size. 2 million isn't that much to be in transit or stock piled there si more to europe than the UK and it is a large land mass with many many stores and retailers to be stockpiled.

Not really true. Any business performance numbers the provide in public statements must match their books. When they say that they "sold" a number of systems- it correlate to order for the system in their books. Otherwise they will be in hot water.

Whether the ordered systems are in warehouses, trucks, ships or retail shelves does not matter. As long as they are ordered and on the books they are all "sold" for the purpose of business performance.

But you are right in a narrow sense - the company can cherry pick to publish the facts that helps its image. But whatever they publish must be true and match their books, or they are breaking the law.