John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Now at Sprint–66 Percent Markdown on Initial EVO Sales Figures

Sprint’s new HTC EVO 4G smartphone is a big seller–just not quite as big as the company first claimed. Last week, the carrier claimed the EVO was its fastest-selling device ever, moving more than three times as many units on its first day as the Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre over their first three days on the market combined.

Turns out, that’s not quite the case: Sprint’s claim was off by a factor of three. In its first day at market, the EVO sold as well as the the Instinct and Pre in their first three days combined, not three times as well.

“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,” Sprint said in a corrected press release today. “We inadvertently erred in the comparison.”

A bit of an embarrassment for Sprint (S), which has been hyping the EVO and its presales for some time now. That said, the device is selling quite well. In fact, it has reportedly sold out at a number of outlets and is in short supply at others.

Not that that’s good news, as BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk notes. “It should be disappointing to investors that the company was not prepared to sell more phones given the demand,” he wrote in a note to clients today.

“While sales of the HTC EVO were much stronger than the Palm Pre last year,” Piecyk added, “Sprint had been assuring investors that they would be well-stocked with inventory and that the component shortages that Verizon had experienced with the HTC Incredible would not impact their launch of the EVO. We understand the value in just-in-time inventory, but would it have hurt to have an extra 100,000 phones ready even if it meant carrying some inventory through the end of the quarter?”

Given Sprint’s revelation, Piecyk now believes Sprint sold about 150,000 EVOs during its first weekend at market, down significantly from his earlier forecast of 250,000 to 300,000.

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik