Sprint dials wrong number with HTC EVO 4G sales figures

US wireless carrier Sprint Nextel said it mistakenly inflated first-day sales figures for the new EVO 4G smartphone from Taiwan's HTC.

Sprint initially said launch day sales for the EVO 4G were three times the combined number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market.

"We inadvertently erred in the comparison," Sprint said in a statement.

The company said the total number of EVO 4G devices sold on launch day was actually in line with the combined sales of the Instinct and Pre over their first three days.

Sprint began selling the EVO 4G, which is powered by Google's open-source Android mobile operating system, on Friday.

Sprint said first-day sales of the EVO 4G, while lower than initially announced, set a sales record for the company.

It said launch day sales of the EVO 4G were six times greater than launch day sales of the Samsung Instinct and nearly twice the launch day sales of the Palm Pre.

Sprint said demand for the touchscreen EVO 4G had led to temporary shortages at some of the 22,000 locations across the United States selling the device.

The EVO 4G is the first handset to run on Sprint's 4G, or fourth-generation, broadband networks.

Sprint currently offers its WiMax 4G services in 27 US cities and has plans to expand to other US markets. It claims download speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G.

(c) 2010 AFP