zcallingcard.com

Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) said it had a blockbuster opening sales day with its HTC Evo 4G smartphone, which broke the one-day sales record previously held by the Samsung Instinct and Palm (NASDAQ:PALM) Pre. According to Sprint, the number of Evo devices the carrier sold on Friday was three times the number of Instinct and Pre units sold over their first three days on the market combined.

Though Sprint did not disclose the actual sales figure, BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk estimated Sprint sold at least 250,000 Evos over the weekend, but noted “it would also be reasonable to speculate that sales could have topped 300,000 this weekend given the pre-ordering appointments that extended throughout the weekend.” David Dixon, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, was more bullish, predicting the carrier sold 320,000 units, gaining 100,000 new customers and 220,000 upgrades.

Customer interest appeared to take its toll on Sprint’s systems. In a statement, the carrier said some stores–including Best Buy, RadioShack and Wal-Mart–were not able to keep up with the demand. Sprint spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein told FierceWireless the carrier saw higher-than-normal wait times for activations due to high volumes.

“Our servers were slowed down but we worked hard to make the customer experience a positive one,” in some cases writing activation orders up by hand, she said. “Think of this like calling the airlines during a snowstorm or tropical weather incident where everyone is flooding the call centers at once–call volumes and wait times were longer than we would like to see but we worked hard to process every activation as quickly as possible.” AT&T Mobility (NYSE:T) has recorded similar problems in the past with iPhone launches.

Regarding inventory shortages, Mermelstein said Sprint is “bringing more devices into stores on a regular basis with many stores actually getting daily shipments.” She described the shortages as a “temporary situation,” and explained that the carrier is working with HTC to ease the inventory constraints as soon as possible.

Shortages of high-end HTC phones are turning into a trend, it seems; Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) is having trouble keeping up with demand for the HTC Droid Incredible.

Sprint is banking on the Evo to turn into a solid hit as well as serve as a showcase for Clearwire’s (NASDAQ:CLWR) mobile WiMAX network as it looks to win back postpaid subscribers. The phone costs 9.99 with a two-year contract and after a 0 mail-in rebate for a new line or eligible upgrade.

For more:
- see this release
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Engadget post
- see this BTIG blog post (sub. req.)
- see this BTIG blog post (sub. req.)
- see this WSJ article (sub. req.)

Related Articles:
Sprint launches HTC Evo amid buzz, bugs
Sprint launching HTC Evo June 4 for 9
4G phones: The promise and the peril
Sprint won’t support Google’s Nexus One

FierceWireless

Bloomberg News
Updated to note technical issues
Sprint Nextel Corp. said its new HTC Corp. Evo 4G handset broke the company’s one-day record for sales of a single phone.

The carrier likely sold 320,000 of the devices at its debut on Friday, David Dixon, an FBR Capital Markets analyst, said in a report today. Sprint may have gained 100,000 new customers and 220,000 upgrades, he said. Sprint didn’t provide a specific sales figure in its statement today.

read more

Sprint Connection | News and views on Sprint Nextel –

Friday sales of the well-reviewed
HTC EVO 4G were the highest number of a single phone sold in one day ever for Sprint – which broke the records held by both Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre.

The total number of HTC
EVO 4G smartphones 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.

Walter Piecyk at BTIG Research estimated Sprint sold at least 250,000 HTC EVO 4G smartphones over the weekend, and speculated that sales could have topped 300,000 this weekend given the pre-ordering appointments that throughout the weekend

FBR Capital Markets’ David Dixon, calculated that Sprint sold 320,000 HTC EVO 4G smartphones, gaining 100,000 new customers and 220,000 upgrades.

The great HTC EVO 4G sales led to temporary shortages of the
device at some of the 22,000 sales locations across the United States,
including Sprint retail stores, national retail partners including
RadioShack, Best Buy and Walmart, and indirect dealers.

Sprint in a news released today, reported that they and HTC
are  working around the clock to increase inventory in all
sales channels. Additional shipments are arriving in retail stores on a
regular basis with many stores seeing daily deliveries.

Top
10 Best Things 2Do While Waiting for Your HTC Droid Incredible and HTC
EVO 4G

WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

During the launch for the EVO 4G this morning, HTC quietly pushed out an OTA update for all EVO 4G devices that addresses last minute shipping bugs, chief among the was the inability to write to the memory card bundled into the device when…



(Continue reading at the link above, or visit PhoneNews.com directly)

PhoneNews.com