HTC EVO Destroys Sprint’s Sales Record

It may be iPhone Day, but that isn’t stopping another top dog in the smartphone market from making headlines. Having gone on sale last Friday, it was a good opening weekend for the HTC EVO 4G. In fact, it was a great weekend, the best weekend for a Sprint phone ever. On Friday alone, Sprint racked up more EVO sales than its previous two bestsellers–the Palm Pre and Samsung Instinct–sold over their first three days. And not just a couple of more units–the EVO tripled the three-day sales total of those two handsets in just a single day. Retailers experienced temporary shortages due to the rapid sales pace.

“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,” Kevin Packingham, a senior vice president at Sprint, said in the press release. “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.”

Sprint didn’t offer any hard numbers, but Fortune’s Seth Weintraub estimates that somewhere between 300,000 to 600,000 customers are now enjoying 4G capability on their new EVOs. We knew it was a big winner on paper, and so far it’s been a big winner at checkout counters. [via Fortune]