On Friday, thousands of Sprint customers around the US witnessed a revolution in smartphone innovation on their carrier’s network, lining up early in the morning before Sprint and RadioShack stores opened their doors early to anticipate enthusiastic demand. The launch of the HTC EVO 4G encouraged thousands of early pre-orders, happy faces and bragging rights as the world’s first “4G” smartphone to utilize WiMAX technology in the 2.5GHz frequency spectrum, marking a departure from the now overcrowded 3G bands that have contributed to the nation’s growing wireless spectrum crisis.

The launch of the HTC EVO 4G has come and gone, and the fruits of its sales have heralded a great weekend success in retail stores. As many have expected, the new mighty and muscular smartphone on the block has shown no mercy to the Palm Pre, launched exactly one year ago, and now takes the top spot as Sprint’s best-selling phone on its launch day.



"HTC EVO 4G has more than lived up to our expectations that it would be one of the most anticipated technology products of the year," said Kevin Packingham, senior vice president - Product Development for Sprint. "We are working closely with our partners at HTC to increase the supply and get EVO 4G into the hands of everyone who wants one as quickly as possible."

Demand for the EVO 4G produced reasonably sized lines at several Sprint stores around the country. According to HTC, the overwhelming demand for the device crunched the company’s account-activation system. "When you activate this many phones at one time, any carrier is going to see a slowdown, and that's what happened," said Michelle Mermelstein, a Sprint spokeswoman.

Many analysts have noted that the launch of the EVO 4G adds to the growing perspective that HTC is now becoming a very sizable competitor in the smartphone market space. Previous views held that the company was experiencing market “fragmentation” across the Google Android and Windows Mobile product ecosystems and might “cause a little bit of a problem,” according to Peter Chou, HTC’s chief executive. However, he notes that the company has fully embraced its “commitment to both Android and Windows Mobile because there are different people in the market.”

The next phase in the success of the HTC EVO 4G is not whether the device continues to outsell its supply, but rather if Sprint’s 4G WiMAX network can efficiently operate with an increased user base until competitors like Verizon and T-Mobile can roll out their own 4G LTE and 3G HSPA+ networks respectively. According to a comprehensive HTC EVO 4G review by Chris Ziegler from Engadget, one of the biggest issues of Sprint’s new network is its consistency around large metropolitan cities already blanketed with WiMAX coverage. During his network tests in Chicago, a WiMAX blanketed city described as an “urban canyon in every sense of the word,” coverage ranged from four bars of 4G walking down the street, to “one or even no bars at all” when ducking into a coffee shop at the bottom of a tall building.

The battle for 4G WiMAX coverage consistency will continue to be explored throughout the rest of the year when Sprint expects to launch service in other large markets, including Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Kansas City, Houston, Los Angeles, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. We will be personally testing coverage throughout the greater Los Angeles area, including northern Orange County, as coverage becomes available in the area this summer.