Bell Corporation, a manufacturer of mobile handsets, has claimed to

Question

Bell Corporation, a manufacturer of mobile handsets, has claimed to have become the leading seller of mobile handsets, in terms of units sold, in the country. According to latest figures released by all the handset manufacturers in the country, G. Bell Corporation managed to sell 80 per cent of the total handsets that it manufactured during the year whereas the market leader, H. Wells Corporation, managed to sell only 50 per cent of its total handsets.

Which of the following identifies a flaw in G. Bell Corporation’s reasoning?

(A) It does not take into account H. Wells Corporation’s huge book of advance orders for handsets that need to be shipped during the next year

(B) It incorrectly assumes that the current trend will continue into the next year as well

(C) It makes no comparison of the average price at which G. Bell Corporation sold its handsets with the average price at which H. Wells Corporation sold its handsets

(D) It does not take into account the total number of handsets sold by either manufacturer

(E) It does not take into account the total market size for mobile handsets in the country

This is a  CR Butler Question

Check the links to other Butler Projects:  
 
 
  Data Sufficiency Butler  
  Problem Solving Butler  
  Sentence Correction Butler  
  Reading Comprehension Butler  
  Integrated Reasoning Butler

Nidzo · Answer

The argument that Bell Corporation made is that it became the new market leader because it sold 80% of the cellphones it manufactured, while the market leader only sold 50% of the cellphones it manufactured. A market leader is defined as the one who sold the most units, not the one with the who sold the greatest percentage of the product it manufactured. For this reason answer choice D is the standout choice.

ANSWER D

ANSWER D

sayan640 · Answer

D should the answer...percentage mentioned does not reveal any information about the numbers for comparison.

Posted from my mobile device

celialem · Answer

I believe the answer to be D) as it says that G. Bell corp sold 80% of the total handsets it manufactured, whereas H. Wells sold 50% of the total handsets, we need more information to be able to compare the numbers.

Michelle777 · Answer

Why D when we???re given the percentage ratio of the total handsets sold ????

HarshavardhanR · Answer

Hey @ Michelle777 ,

The devil is in the details. The percentages given are not percentages of the total handsets sold in the market.

"   Bell Corporation managed to sell 80 per cent of the total handsets  that it manufactured  during the year   "

Observe the bolded portion. If Bell manufactued 1 million handsets in the year, 80% of it i.e., 0.8 million handsets were sold. 1 million in this example is not the number of handsets manufactured by the whole handset market, just what Bell manufactured!

" H. Wells Corporation, managed to sell only 50 per cent of  its  total handsets. "

Here, observe the impact of "its". This means that if H.Wells manufactured 1 million handsets, it managed to sell only 50 percent i.e. 0.5 million of those.

Why is this important?  
The author (Bell corp) has claimed that Bell has sold more units of handsets than anyone else. The justification provided is that they managed to sell 80% of what they produced, while the market leader, H. Wells, was able to sell only 50% of what they produced.

What is the flaw here?

Bell has ignored the actual number of handsets manufactured by both the companies. Just based on the percentages, it is somewhat comical to claim that Bell sold more phones.

Here is an example of why:  
If Bell made 1 million handsets in the year, Bell sold 0.8 million handsets (80%). Great.
But if H. Wells made 10 million handsets in the year, then H. Wells sold 5 million handsets (50%).

Who actually sold more handsets? H.Wells. Then, without considering the actual number of handsets each company manufactured, is it sensible to conclude that Bell sold more handsets? Nope.

Hope this helps.
___
Harsha
Enthu about all things GMAT | Exploring the GMAT space | My website: gmatanchor.com

Bunuel · Answer

Official Explanation

Answer: D

Note that the argument states that G. Bell sold 80% of its total production (and not of the total market size) and H. Wells sold 50% of its total production. For the conclusion to be true, the argument has to assume that the total number of handsets manufactured by the two manufacturers are the same, but this may not be the case. D questions this fact and so is the correct answer.

(A) Future sales are outside the scope of the argument. For all you know, G. Bell could also have equally large advance order bookings.
(B) The argument assumes no such thing.
(C) The argument is concerned with units sold so the price is outside the scope.
(D) The correct answer.
(E) The total market size is again irrelevant because we don’t know how much of the total market size each of the two manufacturers account for.

Bell Corporation, a manufacturer of mobile handsets, has claimed to

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Bell Corporation, a manufacturer of mobile handsets, has claimed to

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards