At CES 2012, Sprint's David Owens has revealed that his company doesn't plan on releasing any further WiMAX smartphones. Sprint was the only major US carrier to fully invest itself into WiMAX as its 4G mobile broadband strategy, but it has recently decided to switch lanes and move ahead with an LTE rollout. A natural part of this transition is to abandon the old and welcome the new, which Sprint commenced with the introduction of its first LTE phones here at CES, and is now continuing by putting a halt on future WiMAX product launches.

Owens, a Senior VP at the Now Network, also opined on the software we can expect to see on 2012 Sprint phones, noting that Android and the iPhone are in dominant positions while Windows Phone has a lot of catching up to do. He's seeing little consumer enthusiasm for Microsoft's mobile platform and believes it's up to the software vendor to excite user interest before Sprint commits more resources and shelf space to it. As to Sprint's time selling Windows Phone so far, Owens says that "the number-one reason the product was returned was the user experience."