Displaying items by tag: Reporting

My statistical analysis instructor once told me that numbers have their own magic and rules as soon as they enter the world of statistics. A 5 is no longer a 5 there as it becomes defined, qualified and categorized. His meaning is that you can use numbers in very different ways in statistics and these might not always measure up with reality. This magic goes far beyond the fact that there are three different ways to find an “average”. The distortion is so great that using actual numbers you can prove almost anything with them.

The sales numbers are out for “PC” shipments from both IDC and Gartner. The two fortunetelling firms differ on many numbers but both agree that the shipments of PCs (yes from Apple too) have declined by .1 % over Q2 2011. What we find interesting is how these two very different reports have been portrayed in the media. In particular we find interesting the way that most sites pick and choose the data they want to convey while citing both reports. So let’s take a look at the whole picture and see if we can have some more fun with numbers.