Sprint doesn’t want to talk about whether it’s getting the iPhone, but it’s not exactly going out of its way to deny it. With many analysts predicting that Sprint will be the next wireless carrier to sell Apple’s iPhone 5, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said Wednesday in a conference that full-year targets in 2011 did not include any potential iPhone sales.

Once again, Hesse declined to say on Wednesday whether the company was planning on selling the iPhone 5, which is rumored to be out in early to mid-October, even Oct. 4. Rather, he just said that, in order to meet the full-year target, Sprint would need to have a “very strong fourth quarter.”

If the company were to sell the iPhone 5, the full-year targets would need to be changed, Hesse said.

There’s concern that once Sprint gets the iPhone, it will eventually shutter its unlimited data plan, currently the only one in the market. Hesse said the company is doing everything it can to keep the plan, even holding regular meetings under the theme, “Thinking Unlimited.”

“We watch it very closely, and we believe it’s profitable,” Hesse said. “If it becomes unprofitable, we won’t offer it anymore.”

Rumors says that despite the talking-about-it-without-really-talking-about-it routine, Hesse “framed [the iPhone] as the key to Sprint’s future business,” saying that the “number one reason customers churn” was “because of the iPhone.”