The definition of disappointment

According to Ina Fried, the second quarter iPad sales were disappointing.

For any other company, 11.8 million tablets would be a lot to sell in a year, never mind a quarter.

I just like that quote. If Asus had sold 11.8 million tablets in a year, they would throw a 2 week celebration on a huge yacht in the middle of the ocean. Here, we have an article bemoaning the poor sales of 11.8 Million iPads in 16 days.

Sixteen days

Let me repeat this for emphasis. In sixteen days, Apple sold a number of iPads that would make their competitors dance with joy, even if that number were for all 4 quarters combined.

Let’s not forget that the new iPad has had some availability constraints which would limit the number they were able to sell along side the lower price iPad 2.

I thought I’d dig around for the Samsung Galaxy Tab sales numbers but it seems Samsung doesn’t make those public. Instead, I found this NPD press release which claims the total sales figures of all non-iPad tablets in the first 10 months of 2011 was around 1.2 Million. In other words, Apple sold something like 10x that number in 16 days. I are disappoint.

I know nothing of the markets or how these analysts work but it befuddles me how we can hold a company to made up standards and then write articles like this when they don’t hit it.