Some analyst decided that he would take the sales figures for computers and then add the sales of iPads to the numbers for Apple, thereby concluding:
Apple Is the Number 1 Computer Seller If You Count iPads
I don’t even know what to do with this.
The idea, I am well aware, is that iPads are kind of like computers in a certain way. Therefore, if you were to stretch the definition of how computers are counted in market research studies, then iPads might count as computers and, BAM, new rankings.
Of course, this entire line of thought crumbles under the slightest amount of intellectual scrutiny.
For starters, iPads are not computers, not according to the definitions used by data gathering organizations, and not according to Apple. Just throwing them in to the mix makes as much sense as saying that Coca-Cola is the Number One computer seller if you include soft drinks. I mean, they sell WAY more units than those other guys if you count it that way!
If one did want to perform some sort of business analysis along these lines, then one would have to account for the fact that other computer makers also have products that are related to computers and might if one were so inclined be included if the definition were stretched. What about smartphones? Do they count? How about GPS devices? Media servers attached to home theater systems? They have a processor and network capability too.
You get the idea.
The point the analyst is trying to make with his farcical data manipulation is that Apple is selling a lot of iPads right now and that those sales should not be overlooked. Ironically, with all of the hype around iPads and then iPhones, it’s hard to believe that anyone is discounting sales of iPads when valuing Apple.
Truthfully, this guy and every other serious analyst of technology and computer markets knows that this whole thing is a farce. However, there is one very smart thing about it. It is exactly the kind of "See? I told you so," headline that techie bloggers and their status updating re-tweeters can latch onto and vote up across the entire Internet until someone else thinks of something more "earth shattering."