[Update] Sprint: Er… No, We Didn’t Sell That Many EVO 4Gs
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.