*grin*
Ever listen to an Apple quarterly call? Same kind of close-to-the-vest talk.
The entire Q&A section is all about reporters and analysts trying to pin down Apple execs on production numbers and costs, end user sales vs channel inventory, royalty revenue, patent costs, future projects, etc. All they usually get are vague handwaving phrases.
Companies like to dance around such details. Either they say "we can't give that info" or they give a PR sentence that has the same meaning, or they give a related or subcategory number that spins things in a good light.
They want the headlines to always give the big, nice numbers
very very true. companies are not required to disclose all those details, but they also should not try to mislead their shareholders. if samsung is basing their return rate on number of units returned versus number of units shipped (as this blog asks), then they are walking very close to the line. if a company touts a 2M unit sales number but the actual number of units sold to customers is far less and the company tries to mislead shareholders by saying "we did not say 'quite small', we said 'quite smooth'" then again they are walking very close to the line.
the correct answer for samsung was not "quite small/smooth" it would have been "we don't distinguish between channel sales and end-user sales in our financial reporting" -- and then leave it at that.
