Sprint CFO says new iPhone not impacting Pre sales

Sprint Nextel will continue to see shortages of the Palm Pre, but the company has not experienced any impact from Apple's new iPhone model,  the carrier's CFO said.

"We still have a backlog of subscribers but it's not unmanageable and we get shipments every week," Sprint CFO Bob Brust said during a webcast of an investor conference. "We'll be short for a while but we're catching up." Brust said he saw the phone attracting both new customers and existing Sprint subscribers. Sprint launched the Pre June 6, and is hoping it will help stem postpaid subscriber losses.

Brust said Sprint had not seen any change in Pre sales since Apple's iPhone 3G S went on sale Friday, but sounded a cautionary note. "That may happen," he said. The executive added that Sprint would release more detailed sales figures for the Pre when it reports second quarter earnings next month.

Outside of the smartphone arena, Brust said it will take time for Sprint to turn around its lagging revenue, which he said was a key priority. He said the Pre and the $50 per month unlimited voice and data plan offered by its prepaid subsidiary, Boost Mobile, will help.  

"That's a really tough rate of decline to keep up with," he said, referring to revenue declines of around 3 percent per quarter in recent quarters. "So sometime out into the future, not years but quarters, I hope we'll see that revenue flatten out and then hopefully turn around, and it'll look like a different company financially when that day comes."

For more:
- see this Reuters article [1]

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