More big talk about the Palm (NSDQ: PALM) Pre from Sprint (NYSE: S), the device’s exclusive carrier, before its June 6 debut. “We’ll have shortages for a while,” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told analysts at an industry conference, reports Dow Jones. In fact, the ailing carrier which is counting on the Pre to help slow the exodus of valuable contract customers to its rivals, believes that demand for the new device is strong enough that it won’t be running a “major advertising campaign” early on. If there are shortages, some analysts, as reported earlier, are putting it down to Palm deliberately keeping the supply down to create a “sell out” device.

Hesse went on to say that the Pre “stacks up extremely well” with the competition,being both a good consumer device, such as the iPhone, and a good business device, as compared to RIM’s Blackberrys. Said Hesse, “People have made compromises. [The Pre] is truly both a consumer and business device.” He also pointed out some of the iPhone’s disadvantages, including its inability to multitask, no removable battery, more expensive service, and AT&T’s smaller 3G coverage. And, it’s one big advantage—its App Store. Hesse said Palm and Sprint would also have a “strong library of applications.”

Hesse also spoke about Boost, its prepaid service that saw strong growth in the first quarter after Sprint introduced its unlimited voice and data plan for $50. He said that Boost wasn’t cannibalizing its core Sprint customers, and the number of subscribers scaling down to the prepaid service was in the “low single digits.”

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