Nobody said the 9 million wasn't real.
Nobody said Apple's definition of sales has changed, either.
It's the same as always: besides what Apple directly sold to end uers in its own stores, it includes millions of units either already arrived at, or in the process of being shipped to, carriers and other retailers.
The only difference from normal, is that some analysts think there was a good amount of iPhone 5C shipments that haven't sold through to end users yet.
Yeah the Gene Munsters of the world who got their predictions horribly wrong and are now doing CYA. Apple hasn't changed they way they report sales so if Munster's estimate was sell in he was still way off. And if it was sell through one has to wonder why he'd use that metric as Apple never reports sell through in press releases. Bottom line is Munster isn't someone worth listening to as he's wrong more than he's right.