This is what @recrypto had to say about it:
For just clarifications for the unit used on IOT.
By default the exchanges uses:
MIOTA != IOTASo the current price is $0.53 per MIOTA and not $0.53 per IOTA.
1 IOTA = $0.00000053
1 meta-IOTA = $0.53
1 giga-IOTA = $5301 mega-IOTA = 1,000,000 IOTA
1 giga-IOTA = 1,000,000,000 IOTA*Spot market price as of 2017-06-15
At first, I got confused as well. XD
The reason behind it though as I've read is to eliminate decimals in transactions.
Hope it helps!