A graph done right.

An infographic called Unboxing the iPad Data has been floating around since the iPad debuted in early April. It’s well done, for the most part, but one portion of it bugged me. Specifically, this:

This graph is, essentially, meaningless. According to the caption, the iPad sold an estimated 300,000 units “this weekend,” which is a vague timeframe (two days? three days? according to the graph it’s one) that includes preorders. Meanwhile, the iPhone sold 1 million units in “over 70 days.” Which means there’s no commonality between the variables. Which means it might as well be comparing apples to lightning strikes, let alone oranges, in terms of being able to draw any conclusions. I wondered if the size of the half-circles might indicate some sort of accurate info, but their scale (diameters 190 vs. 270) relative to each other is meaningless.* As it stands, it’s a pretty picture drawn to make a couple numbers more interesting to look at.

For this chart to mean anything at all, we need some frame of reference. In order to compare the sales numbers on a chart or graph in a meaningful way, we need to standardize either according to number of units sold or number of days elapsed — or both. This chart does none of the above.

I’ve done a bit of reworking on it — read all about it on Weightshift MEMO.