Dan Hesse: Limited stock means limited advertising for Pre 41

As reported by Reuters (and then every other news outlet under the sun), at an investors conference this morning, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told shareholders:

“We don't intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while. We won't be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.”

This jives with earlier rumors about there being a limited supply for the Pre on hand at launch, possibly around 375,000 units - all to be spread out to thousands of Sprint stores and select Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and Radio Shack locations nationwide. Analysts Lawrence Harris of CL King Associates doesn’t expect that Sprint will be able to poach many customers from Verizon or AT&T, saying, “It’s going to sell principally into the base, to existing Palm owners and existing Sprint subscribers.”