Everyone is talking about Samsung’s third-generation Galaxy smartphone and the extraordinary number of pre-orders the company received for the new device. It’s bullshit.

The media is reporting that the company has already received 9 million pre-orders for the device. On the surface, that sounds impressive, but read this paragraph from the original Reuters report again.

Samsung Electronics Co has received some 9 million pre-orders for its third-generation Galaxy S smartphone from more than 100 global carriers, the Korea Economic Daily reported on Friday.

Those are orders from its global carriers, not customers. Come on people.

When Apple reports its pre-orders for a new iPhone, it uses the number of phones ordered by end users. If Apple played this type of silly game, they could add on all of the orders from AT&T, Verizon and all of its carriers from around the world. And if they did that, the number of pre-orders would still be skewed in Apple’s favor.

There is no guarantee that carriers will sell all of the Samsung phones they ordered to end users. In fact, there is no guarantee they will sell even one phone.

What happens to all of the unsold inventory? They go back to Samsung, but they still count as pre-orders.

The lesson of the day: Don’t be fooled by bullshit.