I don't abide by either. Shipped is money for the manufacturer, and sales are the amount of product in the end-users hands. Both interesting for different reasons.
When a company reports its sales numbers, they are the same as shipped numbers. This is not a debatable matter. It is not subjective. You do not get to pick and choose what means what.
Well you have to go at least by one even if the answer is not very simple.
Units sold. Why? Little things called dealer returns and price guarantees. Those units shipped to stores can come back to the dealers warehouses, and they have to cut a check for the retailer the units still on the retailers shelves/warehouse if the manufacturer decides to lower the price. When the product is mearly shipped to stores the quantity of units sold and price that the manufacture sold it for is still in flux.
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