Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel has re-stated the sales of HTC’s EVO 4G phone from over the weekend, which were accidentally over-inflated due to a mistake in calculations.
On Sunday night, Sprint trumped up the number of EVOs sold over the weekend, by saying they were three times greater than both the Samsung Instincts and Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pres sold over their first three days on the market. The new figures say that sales were merely “in line” with the number of Instincts and Pres sold. “We inadvertently erred in the comparison,” Sprint said, according to a Reuters report.
This could have been avoided if Sprint provided concrete numbers, but it declined to do so in both circumstances. Still, by many accounts, the device has been well received and is sold out in many locations.
The carrier is banking on the first 4G phone to be a huge success and pump up its dwindling subscriber base. Because of the correction, BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk said he was cutting his estimate for EVO sales in the first weekend to 150,000 from his prior estimate of 250,000 to 300,000.
Cheating won’t beat iPhone. A bad marketing way.
They didn’t cheat. They simply over-estimated how many NEW subscribers would buy Evo phones versus existing customers. The fact is, there’s nary an Evo to be found if you didn’t already pre-order one. So they must be selling very well, regardless of who buys them. Unfortunately every iPhone fanboy out there looks at this like Sprint’s failing to sell the Evo at all, which is patently untrue.
How can the EVO be “sold out” when only 300K bought one? Maybe FoxConn is only building HTC & Apple phones?