Apple’s New iPad, but is this a Histogram?
These remarkable sales figures came in yesterday – showing Apple’s amazing sales figures with the launch of the iPhone and iPad. The new iPad3 was released today. But, I am wondering, is this graph a Histogram? Before we answer that question (I’m pleased you asked that) what features of this graph are “wrong”?
1. Poor colour scheme (the colours for Mac and iPad are very close)
2. There are no specific dates on each of the columns (simply because they are all in the same Yr Quarter summary)
3. The vertical scale (y-axis) does not have markers between the main divisions
Despite these “faults” there are some good questions that can be asked from this graph, such as;
(a) Which Apple product has declined in sales between 2009 and 2011?
(b) Which Apple product showed the greatest increase in sales between 2010 and 2011 (in dollar terms)?
Answer? No, it is not. A histogram has distinct intervals for data displayed on the x-axis, much like this:
So, what do we call the first (Apple) graph? Simply a bar or (better still) a Column Graph. Either way, what is most important is what we do with the graph. We use it to interpret data and trends. By displaying data in the form of a graph it is much easier to see what is happening and to share this information with others. Happy graphing!