Crazzyman, you stated earlier in the thread that it was like that because it was the time when the console was out for a full year ww, and now you are saying its because of the first time it launched? flawed logic, and you are contradicting yourself...
Thing is, 2001 was a year when PS2 sales had not bloomed (much like PS3's 2007), and they started to get really great in 2002, much like the growth PS3 had year to year. If you align launches of both PS3 and PS2 in each region, you will see PS3 is lagging behind in all three of them, It's just common sense to compare 2001 to 2007...
Besides, PS3 had launched in others as early as 2006 (I think it was Korea, so it had a full year in others in 2007 (besides, Europe Launch of PS3 made up lost sales of january and february because the hype was still high and the timing was right.
You can't say Europe/Others is reason enough to change the year for it is two regions against one, that are comparable to the year before.
And besides Europe/others is the PS3s best region, so it can compare the best against PS2s 2002, yet you are using it as a excuse to use 2001 numbers. Time will tell, and if I'm correct next year PS3 will see a growth very much like PS2's 2002 to 2003.