I love that his article has a section titled NUMBERS DON’T LIE, and then goes on to cherry pick numbers ridiculously in order to make his point. Choosing revenue per employee to compare Nintendo and Apple is silly. Comparing LTDs of the DS and 3DS without mentioning the current trajectory is downright deceptive. Here's two ways those comparisons could have been done differently:
Apple
Net Income (2013): 37.037B
Employees: 98,000
Profit per employee: 377,928USD
Nintendo
Net Income (2013): -23,222 million JPY (or -213M USD)
Employees: 5,213
Loss per employee: 40,859USD
DS vs 3DS SALES
TTM after 14 quarters on sale:
3DS Hardware: 11.66
NDS Hardware: 30.31
3DS Software: 65.45
NDS Software: 185.62
This is my favourite way:
DS Worldwide Shipments:
1) 1st Holiday (LTD through 12/31/04) - 2.84 million (DS launched in this quarter)
2) 1st Spring (LTD through 03/31/05) - 5.27 million
3) 1st Summer (LTD through 06/30/05) - 6.65 million
4) 1st Fall (LTD through 09/30/05) - 8.83 million
5) 2nd Holiday (LTD through 12/31/05) - 14.43 million
6) 2nd Spring (LTD through 03/31/06) - 16.73 million (DS Lite launched in this quarter)
7) 2nd Summer (LTD through 06/30/06) - 21.27 million
8) 2nd Fall (LTD through 09/30/06) - 26.82 million
9) 3rd Holiday (LTD through 12/31/06) - 35.61 million
10) 3rd Spring (LTD through 03/31/07) - 40.29 million
11) 3rd Summer (LTD through 06/30/07) - 47.27 million
12) 3rd Fall (LTD through 09/30/07) - 53.64 million
13) 4th Holiday (LTD through 12/31/07) - 64.79 million
14) 4th Spring (LTD through 03/31/08) - 70.60 million
15) 4th Summer (LTD through 06/30/08) - 77.54 million
16) 4th Fall (LTD through 09/30/08) - 84.33 million
17) 5th Holiday (LTD through 12/31/08) - 96.22 million (DSi launched in this quarter)
3DS Worldwide Shipments:
1) 1st Spring (LTD through 03/31/11) - 3.61 million (3DS launched in this quarter)
2) 1st Summer (LTD through 06/30/11) - 4.32 million
3) 1st Fall (LTD through 09/30/11) - 6.68 million
4) 1st Holiday (LTD through 12/31/11) - 15.03 million
5) 2nd Spring (LTD through 03/31/12) - 17.13 million
6) 2nd Summer (LTD through 06/30/12) - 19.00 million
7) 2nd Fall (LTD through 09/30/12) - 22.19 million (3DS XL launched in this quarter)
8) 2nd Holiday (LTD through 12/31/12) - 29.84 million
9) 3rd Spring (LTD through 03/31/13) - 31.09 million
10) 3rd Summer (LTD through 06/30/13) - 32.48 million
11) 3rd Fall (LTD through 09/30/13) - 34.98 million
12) 3rd Holiday (LTD through 12/31/13) - 42.74 million (2DS launched in this quarter)
13) 4th Spring (LTD through 03/31/14) - 43.33 million
14) 4th Summer (LTD through 06/30/14) - 44.14 million
I like visual charts that clearly show the trajectory.
DS had incredible momentum whereas the 3DS seems to be slowing down.
It is indeed deceptive to make statements like "the 3DS's sales were similar to the DS at the same time period" without talking about trajectories. They really weren't...at all.