TheBigFatJ on 09 October 2007
| Viper1 said: Well said, Magera. Also to note, Prior to Q1 2008 Sony reported manufactured units as 'Sold'. They didn't even have to be shipped yet. They could be manufactured at Foxconn and held in a warehouse for a year but it would get reported as Sold. They have now changed to the industry standard reporting method of 'sold to retail'. |
It should be noted that 1.9 million of the consoles "sold" according to the prior method will be "sold" again thanks to the accounting switch. This means Sony could claim 5.5 million sold last year and 11.0 sold this year, but would actually have sold 14.6 million total sold to retailers (as opposed to the 16.5 million you'd get by adding the two numbers).
Many people suspect this was intentional strategy used to confuse investors who'd gloss over the report and think the PS3 was doing significantly better than it actually was. It would make sense for Sony to retroactively apply the new method (for the sake of clarity) but it seems they're more interested in misleading.
