By So Sprint launched the HTC EVO 4G and a lot of people went crazy for it. They rushed to stores as early as 6AM and picked up their pre-order, glowing with as much joy as they’ve ever had. Soon after, Sprint activation systems went into critical failure and everyone just chalked it up to the buzz Sprint was able to gradually generate for the EVO 4G since it was first announced.
We then heard Sprint had sold more EVO devices on its initial launch day than the Palm Pre and Samsung Instinct – their two-biggest phones previously – in their first three days on the market combined. Then, something amazing happened: someone actually sat down and counted. The conclusion? Sprint didn’t really sell that many phones.
We originally reported that the total number of HTC EVO 4G devices sold on launch day was three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market combined. We inadvertently erred in the comparison.
And now an analyst from BTIG is slashing his estimate of up to 300,000 devices in half: he suspects Sprint only sold 150,000 devices on June 4th and doesn’t expect the number to climb too quickly just yet, citing shortages. This story ends by everyone laughing it off, and then getting restless from Sprint’s caution in just releasing the official sales numbers to the public. Hopefully that chapter will be written sometime soon.
[Update]: A bit more information extracted from the press release which Sprint updated gives us a little more details on what they actually meant. They meant to say that the EVO 4G’s sales were “in line” with what the Palm Pre and Samsung Instinct did on their first three days combined, not three times more. Still pretty impressive, I’d say. We still want those official numbers, though, Sprint.
150k in one day still isn’t shabby, especially since the original stock went dry. I’m sure the next super android phone took good notes on not repeating that mistake.
OK whomever came up with 150k is woefully short. Sprint has approx. 22k retail outlets. So even if each outlet had 10 (averaged across high demand locations and low demand locations) plus online sales you would still be in the 250k to 300k area. Redo your math.
Still, not too shabby for a device, network, and OS that rarely gets the attention and respect it deserves from a media seemingly obsessed with a certain other manufacturer’s phones.
@ Darkseider
Three Sprint stores in my area did not receive their allotments. Shortages abounded before the phones got snapped up.
I know our store only had 2 to sell, gone in 15 mins, the other 20 people in line were kinda upset. We still have at least 10 people a day comming in want to purchase the device. I think if Sprint gets more Android (only have 3 including EVO) devices we could be a power house, My Moment has my whole life on it!
@ Darkseider
You do make a great point because even for the few stores that didn’t there are the stores that got around 45 EVO units. Then count the ones activated through Best Buy, Radio Shack etc… the numbers have to be near 300K if not over!
I wonder if Sprint is counting how many they sold in their stores or # of activations. If you count only the number sold through Sprint retailers, and don’t include Best Buy and the Shack, then I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was about half. I think that # of activations is what ought to be reported. Not the number sold.
That extra $10 a month tax is a huge deal for most people. Also, I think a lot of people in the know were probably holding out for Jobs’ Monday keynote to see if the iPhone would come to some other carriers.
I was in line since 4:30 to get the EVO. So we didn’t just show up when radioshack was opening…
Wow, seriously Sprint? Are we just learning how to count numbers?
Maybe they decided to embellish it to explain why their system crashed. Did not want to make their system look like shit (which it is).
Lol, this story makes me laugh. Sprint acted like a over exited teenager, I guess they prematurely ejaculated with their calculations.
You need to change your title, it is very misleading. The one point many are missing is, in one day the number of EVO’s sold were as much as the Pre and Instincts combined 3 day total. The fact is, the EVO keeps selling out!
The EVO doesn’t KEEP SELLING OUT….it’s JUST NOW SOLD OUT…..there’s only been one flux of devices. I know when VZW had the incredible each store only got about 4-8 devices for the first shipment….they hold most back for online sales and the bigger city corporate stores….so it makes sense that they haven’t sold that many….and if you think about it..i doubt those little kiosk stores in malls even received the phone, since they’re usually behind on newer devices being that they are just a flight-store with rights to sell sprint products. Sprint is junk…seriously. They weren’t prepared for a phone of this caliber. HTC should have seriously rethought the fact of placing THIS PHONE in their grubby little over-seas-job-selling hands.
That’s still really good for any phone, especially a bad boy like the Evo which is probably making more per unit than something as small as stupid as the Pre, or a feature phone, the Instinct
This really makes me wonder how many Sprint ordered, or what could have been made available by HTC.
@ Tyler
I guess Bestbuy didn’t have on average 60 pre-orders, I guess Sprint did not sell out on June 4th either. DO you work for Sprint, NO! Your conspiracy theory of Sprint holding back inventory does not hold water. Sprint stores have always received first dibs on phones. If Sprint stores only had 8 devices (what you’re implying), many-many customers would have complained about it. The Sprint store down the street from my house had 50 people in line, 45 people got the EVO. Who cares what Verizon stores got, or did. What does that have to do with Sprint.
I live in a small town in Oklahoma, and my Sprint store got 50 phones, mall kiosk got 15 phones, and Radio Shack got 10 phones. We’re so small we don’t even have a Best Buy, but every outlet that got the Evo sold out ON the 4th in my area.