Hmmm, we've got to say, we're more than a little disturbed by the recent lapse in reading comprehension skills of the press at large. We're speaking of the widespread coverage of ComputerWare's iMac-buyer exit poll, which made its first appearance on AtAT in Thursday's episode. ComputerWare's poll revealed that of the 500 customers they had who bought iMacs last weekend, a respectable 15% of them were first-time computer buyers. That's great news for Apple's market share, and that fact was generally reported accurately. But the second big fact about who was buying iMacs was misquoted almost everywhere we looked.

A CNET article at news.com claims that the exit survey showed that "13 percent of the customers were replacing a Windows-based computer." Similarly, MacWEEK reports that "13 percent have sold to Windows users." But ComputerWare's actual press release (upon which all these reports are based) notes that "among those who bought an iMac to replace an existing computer, 13% said they were replacing a Wintel compatible computer." There's a big difference (at least in terms of percentage error, if not actual iMacs sold). (When we emailed the Mac Gamer's Ledge about how they had made the same mistake, they promptly changed their story to state that "13 percent of the buyers who were replacing a Windows-based personal computer were buying iMacs," which still isn't right, but it's arguably closer.)

So what does it portend when you get more accurate news from your daily soap opera than from actual news sites with real journalistic integrity, training, etc.? Pretty scary, eh, kids?

For those of you who don't follow our logic, here we go:

• 1/3 of 500 iMacs sold (remember, the press release was based on the first 1/3 of the responses tallied) is about 167 iMacs.
• 15% of that, to account for the first-time buyers, is about 25 iMacs.
• Assuming that all the remaining 85% were replacing existing systems (which is not necessarily true-- for instance, there are people who bought second computers, businesses who bought iMacs for work, etc.), that leaves 142 iMacs to replace existing computers, in the best case scenario.
• 13% of 167, as misreported by CNET et al, is about 21.7 iMacs. (Don't ask us what .7 of an iMac looks like, it's probably pretty grisly.)
• 13% of 142, the maximum number of iMacs replacing old systems by ComputerWare's press release, is about 18.5 iMacs.

So while a little over three machines is not a huge difference in terms of sales numbers, it is a 16% or 17% error ((21.7-18.5)/18.5) in the best case scenario, which is what we meant by a "big difference." Hope that clarifies what we mean. And that's enough math for us for a good solid week-- back to the cartoons...