Sprint Nextel: HTC EVO 4G sets phone sales records Read more: Sprint Nextel: HTC EVO

Sprint Nextel: HTC EVO 4G Sets Phone Sales Records
Monday, June 7, 2010, 9:15am CDT | Modified: Monday, June 7, 2010, 3:10pm

Sprint Nextel Corp. says the HTC EVO 4G is a hit, setting sales records in its first weekend.

According to a release sent out late Sunday, Sprint (NYSE: S) said the EVO is now its top-selling device, unseating last year’s Palm Pre. In fact, the Overland Park-based company said it sold more EVOs in one day than it sold Pres and Samsung Instincts combined in the first three days those two devices were on sale. The Instinct went on sale in June 2008.

Sales could have been even higher, but Sprint said that despite its efforts to avoid shortages like it saw with the Pre, it ran out of EVOs in some of its retail locations and at Radio Shack, Best Buy, Walmart and some independent resellers. Sprint said it and HTC were working to bring additional phones to those stores.

Of course, Sprint never releases sales figures for its devices, so to gauge what any of that means, we have to turn to analysts and blogs.

Walter Piecyk, an analyst with BTIG Research, estimated that Sprint sold at least 250,000 EVOs and could have sold more than 300,000 based on pre-orders. He noted that as opposed to the Palm Pre, more devices were available, the buying public is more comfortable with the Android operating system, and many customers are interested in using Sprint’s super-fast 4G wireless Internet network being built in partnership with Clearwire Corp.

“As a reminder, Palm Pre sales initially settled in around 50,000 per week after the initial launch, so if the EVO’s outperformance continues, Sprint should sell over 500,000 HTC EVOs in the month of June,” Piecyk said.

Incidentally, this is coming from an analyst who’s not normally a cheerleader.

Some blogs, such as Fierce Wireless, said some stores saw lines out the doors on Friday. They also reported minor glitches, such as difficulty for some users to save files to the device.

Still, Oppenheimer analyst Timothy Horan said, in total, “we believe this is a highly attractive handset which could be very positive for Sprint.”

Sprint certainly is hoping the EVO is the device it’s been looking for to attract and retain large numbers of customers and help it stay competitive with Verizon Wireless and AT&T (NYSE: T).

How long it stays the hot new device could be measured in hours, however, as Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs later Monday revealed the newest version of the iPhone.

Sprint Nextel: HTC EVO 4G sets phone sales records - Kansas City Business Journal

 

Re: Or perhaps not...

Thanks Matt. Even with the corrected numbers though the sales figures are impressive and this phone is a great addition to Sprint.