HTC WiMAX handset breaks sales record in US

4G is taking off big time among US consumers, according to Sprint Nextel, which this week trumpeted the launch of its first WiMAX-enabled handset, the HTC Evo 4G.

Once again, Taiwanese vendor HTC was at the forefront of the action, using its Android expertise to put out a gadget with a 4.3 inch screen, dual eight megapixel video camera and front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, HDMI output jack, Snapdragon 1GHz processor, WiMAX, wifi and a built-in mobile hotspot for up to eight wifi enabled devices.

Sprint said that when the device launched on Friday, thousands of customers lined up several hours before stores opened their doors to get their hands on the Evo 4G. In fact, sales of the device marked the largest quantity of a single phone sold in one day ever for Sprint – a record previously held by both the Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre, with the Evo outselling the Instinct and Pre by 3:1 combined.

Sprint has launched a hard hitting marketing campaign, pitching its 4G service as delivering download speeds “up to ten times faster than 3G”. The carrier’s WiMAX network covers 43 million people across 33 markets and Sprint expects to have up to 120 million people covered by the end of 2010. In 2010, Sprint expects to launch 4G service in Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York City, Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, St. Louis and Washington, D.C.