Shipped is shipped from manufacturing to retailers (including Apple retail stores) or consumers. Sold is sold to consumers. No need to complicate it.
One complication in general when doing comparisons is that many companies do use the word "shipped" interchangeably with "sold".
If you mean Apple's definition, "sold" includes items paid for by a retailer and in the process of being shipped to them. See their SEC filing below. The moment an item is shipped to a retailer, it's counted as revenue. They do not count shipping to their own stores, though.
"(Apple) recognizes revenue when persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists, delivery has occurred, the sales price is fixed or determinable, and collection is probable. Product is considered delivered to the customer once it has been shipped and title and risk of loss have been transferred. For most of (Apple)’s product sales, these criteria are met at the time the product is shipped."
- Apple 10-K
Btw, "customer" means both consumers (end users) and retailers. We have to be careful not to confuse the c words.
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