Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) plans to fire Brian Maupin for creating a couple of animation videos that shows tech support talking to people about the iPhone versus the HTC EVO.

Best Buy will start selling white HTC EVO 4G phones on July 11th, but the device can be pre-ordered now. Word is that the white version of the EVO is exclusive to Best Buy until September. The price is $199.99 on a 2 year contract. [Best Buy]

On June 4th, Sprint launched the HTC EVO 4G and announced on June 7th that the phone broke all sales records, including the Palm Pre launch.  Two days after that, the story was pulled back due to errors in the numbers.

The HTC EVO 4G went on sale this past Friday and smashed Sprint’s weekend sales records.  The EVO 4G is the first 3G/4G phone in the U.S.  This means that sales of the EVO 4G surpassed sales of the Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre.  Rumor has it that the phone sold over 200,000 units.  To see our previous HTC EVO 4G coverage, click on the category tag above.

The HTC EVO 4G is now available for sale at Sprint.com, Sprint Stores, Radio Shack, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart at a price of $199.99 with two year contract and a $100 mail in rebate.    The HTC EVO 4G is powered by Android 2.1 and has a dual-mode 3G/4G connection.  The phone processor is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip.  Other features include 8 megapixel camera, WiFi, front/rear cameras, 4.3″ display.  Two way video chat is made possible through Qik Video at a price of $4.99 per month.  This is HTC’s first 4G smartphone.  [MobileCrunch]

The HTC EVO 4G handset will be available for purchase from Sprint at a price of $199.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate. RadioShack is offering it for the same price without requiring mail-in rebates. If the pre-order through RadioShack is placed before May 31st, you will also get a $20 in-store accessory credit. Unactiviated EVO 4G handsets can be bought for $499.99 at RadioShack as well. [Sprint and Radio Shack via SlashGear]

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse announced today that the HTC EVO 4G will be available on June 4th for $199.99. However you will need to have the $69.99 Everything Data plan to use the phone. Full press release below: