Sprint delivered its mea culpa in a press release Tuesday (via Reuters), admitting that it fouled up when it initially boasted that on its first day of sales, the Evo 4G sold three times as many handsets as the old Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre did — combined — in their first three days of release.
Turns out that's, ah ... not entirely accurate. Yes, the Evo 4G sold as many units in its first day as the Instinct and the Pre combined in their first three days on the market — just not three times as many, as Sprint originally said.
"We inadvertently erred in the comparison," Sprint said in its statement. You can say that again.
Sprint's foul-up is a shame, really, because by any other measure, the HTC Evo 4G is selling like hotcakes. Boy Genius Report points out that the phone is unavailable online ("sorry, this device is so hot we can't keep it on our virtual shelves," a message reads), and would-be customers are having trouble finding the phone at Sprint brick-and-mortar locations.
With its gorgeous 4.3-inch display, support for Sprint's speedy new 4G WiMax network,Iceberg, 720p video recording, and mobile hotspot capabilities, the Evo 4G is shaping up to be one of the hottest smartphones of the summer, even compared with the just-announced iPhone 4 (which is set to go on sale June 24).
Indeed, I called a half-dozen Sprint stores in Manhattan; all of them were sold out, although clerks told me they were expecting new shipments of the Evo 4G any day now. One store representative told me he had a waiting list with 40 names on it — and remember, Sprint doesn't even offer WiMax coverage here in New York yet.
While the widespread Evo 4G sellouts might sound like great news for Sprint — a struggling carrier that's in dire need of a hit — analysts on Wall Street are eying the news with concern, with Reuters noting that at least one analyst is chopping his original first-weekend sales estimates for the phone by nearly half, to about 150,000 units.
Sprint needs to boost its Evo 4G inventory pronto if it wants to capitalize on the demand ... not to mention so it can make it easier for you to buy the phone for yourself, if you so choose.
So, anyone else out there having trouble finding the HTC Evo 4G in stock?
Reuters: Sprint says it overstated EVO launch day sales
Boy Genius Report: HTC EVO 4G sold out across the country
— Ben Patterson is a technology writer for Yahoo! News.
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The HTC Evo 4G is selling out from coast to coast,Bape, although it turns out Sprint's original, eye-popping estimates for first-day sales of the red-hot Android phone were a wee bit off — by a factor of three, in fact. Oops.