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HTCs Evo 4G LTE and One X smartphones have finally cleared customsfor real, this timewhere the devices languished following a patent dispute between HTC and Apple.
HTC has completed the review process with U.S. Customs, and HTC devices have been released, as they are in compliance with the ITCs ruling, HTC said in a statement. Future shipments should continue to enter the U.S., and we are confident that we will soon be able to meet the demand for our products.
Sprint updated its blog (though, weirdly, not the date on the posting) to say that customers who preordered their HTC Evo 4G LTE (Long-Term Evolution) devices received them last week, though Sprint continues to wait for our full inventory from HTC.
The carrier added, We recently learned that HTC devices have been released by U.S. Customs. We expect shipments of HTC Evo 4G LTE to enter the U.S. in the next few days.
On the Sprint site, the Evo 4G LTE is listed as coming soon. On the AT&T site, the HTC One X is said to be out of stock.
The delay is surely frustrating for Sprint, which, struggling to keep up with Verizon and AT&T, needs all the sales it can get. For AT&T, the timing leans perhaps more toward unfortunate, as talk of the One X has grown with the initial release of Samsungs Galaxy S III smartphone.
The GS III, with its 4.8-inch display, quad-core processor, skinny-minny physique, Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), OS and 9 million preorders, is expected to become the summer must-have Android phone, when it finally reaches U.S. shores. (The May 29 release was for 28 countries, none of them the United States.)
While the GS IIIs early reviews have generally been positive, nearly all have compared it with the One X, with some reviewers preferring the HTC to Samsungs new headline-maker.
Such reviews are a welcome feather in HTCs cap. Since the success of its original Evo 4G smartphone, the company has seen its market share shrink as Samsung, with its Galaxy line, has seen its share explode.
The Engadget review called the GS III more than the sum of its parts and a solid improvement over its predecessor, the enormously successful Galaxy S II. Still, the tech sites reviewer added, the worst thing about the GS III is that no matter how hard it tries, it just isnt greater than the sum of the HTC One Xs parts.
The One X is another pocket challenger, featuring a 4.7-inch, 720p high-definition Gorilla Glass display, as well as Android 4.0, or ICS), HTCs well-liked Sense user interface, Beats Audio and a feature-rich 8-megapixel camera.
On May 23, tech site Phonedog.com announced that the One X had topped both its People’s Choice and Experts charts, while at the start of the month, ZDNet reviewer Matt Miller called the One X the best device hes ever used.
HTC kicked off their new strategy of quality over quantity this year, and the HTC One X shows what can be created with a serious focus on design, wrote Miller.