It's a stupid article, and they do say seem to imply that the increased sales had an emotional push, but I don't think they're coming off as badly as you say they are.

My thoughts are that his death did draw a great deal of attention to the launch. Do you think that didn't contribute a little to the sales? It's not offensive to observe a cause and effect.

But I think that the biggest contributor to the sales numbers was the longer time between product releases, thus bringing people closer to their contract renewal periods, so in that way I disagree with the starting hypothesis of the article.