Last night in a press note HTC sent the following statement out regarding a new delay in shipping both the AT&T HTC One X and the Sprint version in the HTC EVO 4G LTE:
The US availability of the HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE has been delayed due to a standard U.S. Customs review of shipments that is required after an ITC exclusion order. We believe we are in compliance with the ruling and HTC is working closely with Customs to secure approval. The HTC One X and HTC EVO 4G LTE have been received enthusiastically by customers and we appreciate their patience as we work to get these products into their hands as soon as possible.
The ITC exclusion order being cited is the one handed down by the regulator last year and references previous litigation between Apple and HTC regarding design elements between HTC’s Android smartphones and Apple’s iPhone. As a result of the ITC ruling on the matter last year, which saw it favor Apple, HTC’s future devices were to face being excluded from sale beginning on April 18th of this year in the US and the One X/EVO 4G LTE launches have now been affected as a result.
Should both devices fail the exclusion examination being conducted by Customs under the guidance of the ITC, Sprint and AT&T face being left without their flagship Android devices for the year and face even larger economic losses as a result of of millions of dollars in R&D and development along with HTC until the devices can be brought into compliance, which would then require further certification and approval.
As of this morning, Sprint has scrubbed all references to the previous May 18th launch date as a result of the delay and have stopped taking pre-orders with no word on the status of pre-orders already taken. Sprint and AT&T also have yet to issue a statement regarding the situation since HTC’s statement was issued last night, and representatives may be overwhelmed to the point that instead of issuing individual comments to the media, may be holding off to issue official statements on the matter later today.
Update: HTC has released an additional statement regarding the Sprint launch of the HTC EVO 4G –
We can confirm that the product will not be in stores this Friday. Products for pre-order are on hold. We’ll provide a ship date as soon as we’re able. HTC will work with Sprint to maintain the promise for pre-order customers so they will be among the first to receive their HTC EVO 4G LTE units when available.
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