Hey Jim Cramer, Let Us Google That For You
So this Analyst Palm Pre Return Rate story is refusing to die. To get you caught up quickly - we had a poll here at PreCentral.net in our forums asking users whether or not they'd had to return their Pre. 40% (at the time) had. A financial analyst included said number in a report and pointed out that it wasn't exactly scientific - a fact our members understand implicitly. That fact got lost in the blogosphere shuffle and suddenly people are saying that the Pre has an unusually high return rate.
The latest financial analyst to repeat this number: Jim Cramer of CNBC - who cited the number but not the source. Listen, Jim, we're not going to go all Jon Stewart on you here, but it seems like some simple research might have helped you with your segment. Here, let us Google "Palm Pre Return Rate" for you. The number one story, Wired pointing out that the Pre's return rates aren't out of the norm1. The number two story, our very own post on the topic (you know, the source of the poll). Heck, if you bothered to check out the second poll on that story which we cheekily posted, you'll find that the return rate listed there was 30%. You'll also find that it was an internet poll at a site with a large number of picky power users who demand perfection from their Pre. That 30% number truly is unacceptable for our users, but whether or not it's indicative of the overall return rate is an open question.
Look, we plum don't know what the return rate of the Pre is. What we do know is that context is important and every time a bit of context gets stripped away from a controversial issue like this, it causes confusion. When the end of that chain of confusion is advice on how people should invest their money, well, we get a little salty about how that context got stripped out. When it comes to people's retirement, we'd like to think that analysts have a responsibility to do simple things like a 2 minute Google search-and-read first.
But since this whole fiasco started in our forums, we'll end it there: head on over to our thread on your Mad Money segment. Oh, what the heck, we can't resist one more poll. You know which option we think is the right one:
Thanks to Goyena for the video link!
