Dan Hesse must be a huge Michael Jordan fan or has been watching the Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony yesterday because when Charlie Rose asked him about how the Palm Pre is fairing against Apple’s iPhone, he said the iPhone needs to be put in a separate category, that it’s almost like comparing it to Michael Jordan. Here’s the Q&A:

Q: Is the Palm Pre making a dent into the iPhone market?

A: Aaah… It’s-it’s doing well, but you can almost put the iPhone, to be fair, in a separate category. The Apple brand and that device have done so well, it’s almost not… it’s like comparing someone to Michael Jordan.

Dan Hesse is hitting on something many consumers have been arguing about; is the iPhone everything it’s been hyped to be? Hesse seems to agree but hopefully Sprint can continue to compete against Apple by making the Palm Pre and other smartphone devices popular for the consumer’s sake. As much as I like the iPhone, it would be sad if Apple started to scale back on innovation because they don’t have any competitors.

(Via Gizmodo)