Sprint HTC Evo 4G Update Now Safe to Accept

It's now safe for HTC Evo 4G owners to begin updating the latest software for their handsets, an HTC spokesperson confirmed June 30.

Sprint began rolling out an over-the-air update June 28, but reportedly had to quickly halt the release after a number of customers contacted the carrier to say that the update had severely damaged their phones.  

"HTC and Sprint have implemented changes that eliminate the issue that a small number of HTC Evo 4G customers experienced," an HTC spokesperson told Brighthand, "and owners should not hesitate to accept the software update when prompted."

While the Evo 4G is game for an update to the Android 2.2 operating system once it arrives, this smaller firmware update is designed to improve the phone's performance over WiFi networks and to fix bugs related to managing Exchange ActiveSync and synchronizing addresses in Facebook.

The Evo 4G, which Sprint began selling June 4, is touted as the country's first 4G-capable smartphone, as it can connect to Sprint partner Clearwire's WiMax network, where it's available.

The HTC handset also boasts a 4.3-inch capacitive touch screen, an 8-megapixel camera, as well as a second, front-facing camera for video conferencing and a 1GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm. It can additionally act as a 3G or 4G hot spot for up to eight WiFi-enabled devices.

To view images of the HTC Evo 4G, click here.

The phone has so far been a hit for Sprint, which announced that the Evo's launch date marked the greatest number of a single phone that the carrier had sold in one day.

Sprint's Evo 4G sales roundly surpassed its past successes with the Palm Pre and the Samsung Instinct, though the carrier somewhat fumbled the math regarding by what degree. In an updated June 7 statement, Sprint clarified, "Launch day sales of the HTC Evo 4G were six times greater than launch day sales of [the] Samsung Instinct and nearly twice the launch day sales for Palm Pre. We continue to see sales of Evo 4G outpace sales of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre."

The Evo 4G is selling so well, in fact, that Sprint CEO Dan Hesse acknowledged that the carrier is actually in short supply of the handsets. The shortage comes not from a shortage of parts, so much as from greater-than-expected demand.

"We're certainly doing everything we can to ensure we're supplying devices as quickly as possible," a Sprint spokesperson told Reuters. "We're seeing greater demand for our products than we ever have in the past."