In its efforts to keep pace with competition with Verizon and AT&T, Sprint is now facing a new hurdle – shortage of supply of its June-released, the much-raved-about HTC EVO 4G handset, the first 4G-capable smartphone in the US!

Though the EVO handset was an instant hit, setting new ‘record’ first-day sales for the Sprint network; the increasing subscriber volume soon resulted in the short supply of the phone – with Sprint clearly unable to cope with that demand. 

Noting that the supply shortages of the EVO resulted in the formation of waiting lists at the Sprint stores, the company’s spokeswoman Melinda Tiemeyer remarked: “It’s a great problem to have. It’s about popularity!”

The notably high demand for the EVO handset has provided Sprint a great opportunity to gain noteworthy ground against leading carriers - Verizon and AT&T, both of which still carry only the 3G-capable handsets.

Sprint, incidentally, is presently the only 4G carrier, providing superfast data download speeds that are between three- and ten-times faster than the speeds offered by other carriers.

However, analysts are of the opinion that the advantage that Sprint has over competitors, in terms of 4G, might turn out to a missed chance for the carrier if it fails to meet the increasing demand – a problem that gets more compounded with HTC recently stating that it is “currently challenged to deliver the device.”