Following Sprint’s earnings call, the company wrapped up a pretty dark 2008 with more of the same - there’s really no way to sugarcoat this so we’ll just get right to it. Sprint lost $1.62 billion in Q4 for a total loss of $2.79 billion in 2008. Actually that’s not terrible, all things considered. As for subscriber figures, 1.3 million fled the carrier in Q4 rounding off Sprint’s total number of lost subscribers in 2008 at 4.5 million. The company carried 49.3 million subscribers into 2009 and seemed optimistic that the new year would bring a slowed bleed rate along with it. While 2009 is certainly looking a bit brighter for the company, it still appears entirely too reliant on a single device to turn things around. The Palm Pre is indeed one of the most highly anticipated handsets of 2009 but it certainly isn’t the messiah and it’s going to take a whole lot more than one sexy phone to make up for a 2008 that was $2.8 billion in the red. As strong as Sprint’s network is, where available, the company has the behind-the-scenes goods to make things happen. If it can pepper in a few more solid handsets and somehow get WiMAX back on track, we could definitely see things start to look up for Sprint as 2010 rolls around.
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