Apple fudges iPhone sales figures by bundling iPod touch numbers into the mix

It seems that yesterday's NPDdata which suggested that Android had a 28% market share and the iPhone a 21% touched a nerve at Apple HQ and prompted a response. But Apple's response interestingly bundles the iPod touch in with iPhone sales, seriously fudging the numbers.

The response was sent by Apple spokeswoman Natalie Harrison gave a statement to Digital Daily's John Paczkowski:

This is a very limited report on 150,000 US consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide. IDC figures show that iPhone has 16.1 percent of the smartphone market and growing, far outselling Android on a worldwide basis. We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent and with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon.

OK, first off, it's highly unusual for Apple to take the time to respond to NPD data. The fact that there was a response suggests that the information touched a nerve.

But what's also interesting is how Apple is fudging the figures. The 85 million iPhone and iPod touch figure is correct, only 50 to 55 million of those are iPhones.

Way to fudge the figures Apple. Naughty, naughty!