Sprint Nextel Corp. has been seeing shortages of its EVO high-speed phone from HTC Corp. in some places due to better-than-expected demand, Chief Executive Dan Hesse said Tuesday.
Hesse said he wished he had more EVOs, which launched June 4, after his keynote presentation at a Forrester Customer Experience conference.
“The device is more popular than we or HTC could foresee,” he told reporters after his presentation.
Asked whether the shortfall was due to a lack of key components for the phone, Hesse said he thought the issue was more about stronger-than-expected demand than component shortages and he deferred the question to HTC.
The first U.S. phone to support fourth-generation wireless data speeds, the EVO is a key device for Sprint as it looks to draw back customers lost to rivals such as AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc.
Hesse said the phone was still selling briskly, and Sprint was still seeing shortages even after the store launch last week of iPhone 4 by Apple Inc., whose exclusive U.S. operator is AT&T.
Sprint shares were down 10 cents, or 2 percent, in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
I have a EVO 4G.. It is the greatest phone that I have ever had.. It is fast, the apps thatyou can download are great, etc.. What I do not understand is… With Sprint having the only 4G market place.. Then why did they not have more phones avalible.. It took me the second pre phone oder from Radio Shack to get it.. Sprint Stores did not even have then.. Everyone knows that AT&T is “CRAP”!! Sprint if you want to grow wake up and smell the “4G”!!