"What the iPhone has shown is that if you really do have a compelling device that is revolutionary… then customers will switch to your service," he said. "We think the Palm Pre stacks up very well against the iPhone, especially its operating system and the ability it gives you to multitask and to integrate with business and consumer applications."

Hesse also said that the Pre could help Sprint reduce its churn rate for postpaid wireless customers, which bounced up from 2.16% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 2.25% in the first quarter of this year.

Over the past year Sprint has seen a steady drop in its quarterly revenues, as its $8.2 billion in first quarter 2009 operating revenues marked a 12% decrease from the $9.3 billion in operating revenues it generated in the first quarter of 2008. At the heart of Sprint's decline has been the continued deterioration of its postpaid wireless plans in which customers pay the carrier after using their wireless minutes every month. Although Hesse touted his company's recent successes in bringing aboard subscribers to less-expensive prepaid wireless plans, he stressed that "one area we need to turn around is decline in postpaid subscribers."

"Our problem is that we're not bringing in new customers and that's largely a brand issue," he said.