Sprint fires employee who leaked weak EVO 4G sales numbers
By Vlad Savov 
posted June 14th 2010 7:14PM
posted June 14th 2010 7:14PM
You know the backstory by now: Sprint boasted that the EVO 4G was its fastest selling phone ever a couple of days after hitting the American market, before abruptly correcting itself and admitting that the EVO's sales were in fact in line with those achieved by the Pre last summer. What you, and we, didn't know till now, however, is that Sprint's self-correction was sparked off by an employee with a curious mind and posting privileges over on the xda-developers forum. On June 6, according to MobileCrunch, this unnamed hero of truthiness browsed Sprint's internal inventory system and nailed down a figure of 65,500 sold units from Sprint's own stores -- a stat far south from what Sprint would announce a day later. That number ultimately found its way onto the message board, and though it obviously shouldn't be taken as authoritative (or exhaustive), it was enough to get Sprint to hit the auto-correct button and part ways with the activist member of staff. Harsh.[Thanks, Carol]
Damn
He probably should be smart enough to not post info like that from his store PC's? He should have used someone else free wifi with an EVO :D
@DDiaz007
If he used his exchange email to send out those numbers, he blew it.
@DDiaz007
Well, if the guy was in the marketing department he deserves it. Give the guy a break if he was in the dark about the whole thing though.
@DDiaz007 The EVO is cursed... Damn you HTC!
I don't get all the drama of just having to sell a phone. I hate humans. Just make the selling to robots, please.
@EddieN
It was Oprah. Damn you Oprah!
http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/04/celebrity-nerds-oprah-has-an-evo-4g-and-you-dont/
@EddieN
Exactly!
@DDiaz007 did I miss something or is it the official Engadget Evo Bashing Day??
@DDiaz007
LMAO....
Evo 4G = FAIL
iPhone will = WIN
Android fanboys can start bitching in 3, 2, 1....
@BrookLynnsFinest Ok, I'm a WP7 fanboy but I don't do "Android Fail, WP7 WIN!" because I'm mature enough to think that doing so is a childish thing to do.
@BrookLynnsFinest
Uh oh, I smell an Apple fanboy... Shooo shoo!
@DDiaz007
lol 6 minute down rank into oblivion
@BrookLynnsFinest
Can't hear you, all the way down in oblivion.
- WebOs user
@Jean
webOS that is probably getting killed by HP at this very moment? HA...like you even have any right to speak.
The Pre was another such "iPhone killer" much like the Evo 4G. Launched on Sprint. FAILED. Palm and webOS then FAILED as well.
And now the whole legacy of Palm is GONE. And they are owned by a new company...never to be truly independent again.
Sorry that you Apple Haters can't stand the truth. You attack Apple and the iPhone. Well I'm going to attack android and the shitty phones that run it.
@BrookLynnsFinest
I didn't know that phones give their owners the "right to talk".
Where did you get that I'm an Apple hater, I've got an imac, a macbook pro and an ipod touch. The iPhone never appealed to me, and in my opinion WebOs is still miles ahead of the iOS, the only thing that's going to make me jealous of future iPhone 4 users is that gorgeous screen.
@treats
I dont know The guys at radio shack said they sold almost 100,000 themselves over the weekend.. Best Buy and Radioshack sold out at every location in So Cal in about 5 hours and were out for at least a week..
@BrookLynnsFinest So because we think you're a troll, you think your detractors are Apple haters?
How annoyingly pretentious.
-Another webOS user
@Android4Eva Indeed it is Engadget Evo Bashing Day, which by curious quirk falls on the same day iPhone 4 preorders start.
You may want to pencil in the upcoming Engadget All Phones That Aren't iPhones Bashing Day which will fall on June 24th.
@Celz
"the guys"? Lol
The sad thing is, those weren't the correct numbers. Neither does it include numbers from bestbuy, RS or Walmart.
@treats He would but his EVO already fell apart.
@DDiaz007 lol - i said damn too! before i clicked on the comments
JINX!
@Celz its easy to sell out when you only put pre-ordered phones on the shelf and maybe 3 or 4 unspoken for nuts on the shelf on launch day.
@DDiaz007
it says the sales number is from sprints own stores.. what about all the other retail outlets that cell the phone?
been over a week and my (2) that i ordered havent been shipped yet still awaiting inventory.
and you cant buy this phone online anywhere right now without it saying 7-14 days wait
@DDiaz007
When you work for a corporation, what do you expect? Your arse is theirs and people fail to realize the importance of privacy in such environments. Career fudged...
@DDiaz007
As much as most people find Engadget and the comments to be utterly useless, I actually find this and a few other blogs a great way to keep a tab on the consumer pulse of tech. I'm overweight in tech when it comes to equities. In fact, the day of the initial Sprint press release, was the day I "sold on the news" fir a tidy profit. I suspect Sprint has been overbought currently, and just prior to next quarter, will be optimal time to go short.
@DDiaz007 I thought they sold out?
If they sold out, then they sold as many as they possibly could have. No?
@Ducman69 No. If HTC can't feed Sprint with more than 65k units they have issues. This also means the phone is not for mass adoption, the question would be why???
@Celz No one has posted hard numbers yet. The best insider number I've heard is below 100k so far in total,
Take responsibility for your lies Sprint.
@WastedxYears Dude, I don't care which phone you're a fanboi for. This is just deceptive first, and cruel second.
@WastedxYears
sounds like the employee was downranked into oblivion. pretty normal round these parts for saying things how they are, so why should we be surprised.
@WastedxYears
could of just been the numbers from sprint stores this guy released, and sprints numbers include all the stores.
sprint.com and sprint stores dont offer the instant rebate.. for that reason they probably dont sell as many as bestbuy and wirefly.. because quite frankly anyone shopping their doesnt know much.. or likes to wait for mail in rebates?
which the phone has been sold out on since the night of launch.
@WastedxYears Posting internal sales numbers to a fan site is grounds for firing, ESPECIALLY details on a publicly traded company. This wasn't Sprint being upset that the guy "blew the whistle" on them, there are laws that protect whistle blowers.
He exposed sensitive, financially relevant data to the XDA-developers site before it was public. That's a reason to get fired. He's lucky he didn't go to jail for it.
You can bet if someone posted Apple sales figures the day before Apple announced them that they'd have their door kicked in faster than a Gizmodo editor.
@Cy Starkman
Ha.. So true.
Never tell the truth about an Android device when it's negative or you'll get fired/stoned to death/downranked into oblivion.
@WastedxYears
This is too funny -- they basically lied about the whole thing then were forced to tell the truth...and the employee who told the truth is the one getting fired...wow what a fucking system we have here.
Is lord vaders fault!! Evil Bastard!!
you didn't...
@FrankDTank
Force choke in 3, 2, 1..
Judging by his avatar, he's already being force choked.
That's harsh. The person who fired him deserves to be fired. Seriously, this is just irresponsible of Sprint.
@aliendude5300
Absolutely not. Regardless of how you feel about it, that employee had no right to post that information. That information isn't even necessarily accurate (it doesn't cover other retailers, etc) and has the potential to cause material harm to his/her employer. That is absolutely grounds for dismissal, again, regardless of your own opinions on the subject. Plain and simple, no matter what company this employee worked for, they did wrong.
@sykosoft Now that I think about it, I see your point, and I think you're right. That information was confidential internal Sprint information, and he had no authorization to post it, therefore it was a breach of corporate policy. In that case, he should be fired after all...
@aliendude5300
I applaud you. You took on board someone else's argument and openly changed your mind. That's so rare to see on here.
I agree for the reasons above. They should have been fired.
@aliendude5300
ALL companies take their PR very seriously. It is the public face of their company. Unless this person worked in the PR department and has authorization to post these numbers to whatever site/publication he chooses, he is in the wrong. My brother works for Microsoft and he CAN'T tell me about some things because it isn't his place to do so. And I can respect that and I don't push him for knowledge. Same principle.
@sykosoft
Absolutely right.
We should all put company as priority before truth.
Let's be understanding to the company that is supposed to post sales figures for investors without lying about them anyway.
@JW It's SPRINT's choice on how/when they release their sales figures, not some random employee that clearly wasn't responsible enough to have that kind of access to begin with. Whether or not they tried to deceive people about said sales figures is a different matter.
@aliendude5300
That is just the way Sprint works. I used to work for Sprint, and hate the company, but you couldn't pay me enough money to switch to another carrier. I've tried the others and found them wanting. So every month I mumble F you Sprint, and pay my bill so I can enjoy the best coverage.
One thing that needs to be taken into account in regards to those reported numbers from the ex-employee though is that they are only for corporate stores. There are about three times as many franchise stores, and god knows how many mall kiosk stores out there that sold on average 50 or more phones the first day. So you can take the reported corporate numbers, and tripple them, and then add in all the Best Buy, RS, and Wal-Mart sales and you will be getting close to the actual sales for day one.
@sykosoft I agree with you, but, I admire him for leaking the truth. I hate when companies lie. I guess I should hate all companies then.