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Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S III Selling on Amazon for $800

Lauren Goode — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:18:12 +0000

Just can’t wait for the Galaxy S III smartphone, Samsung’s successor to its popular Galaxy S II?

Thanks to Amazon.com, you can now preorder it on the e-commerce site for $799.99.

For those unfamiliar with the hotly anticipated phone, here are some of the details: It’s got a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED screen, runs Android’s 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, has an eight-megapixel rear-facing camera as well as a front camera, and a quad-core 1.4 GHz processor. It also has “S Voice,” clearly inspired by iPhone’s Siri app, allowing a user to control certain functions on the phone using his or her voice. The phone is available in white and “pebble blue.”

But even if it’s a great phone — and even if Amazon’s Prime shipping applies — we have to say, that’s a pretty steep price to get a phone in advance of its release through carriers.

And, as the Amazon listing notes, the unlocked phone — which means its not tied to a wireless network — is “compatible with 2G GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and/or 3G UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA 850/900/1900/2100 wireless networks.”

What does all that gibberish mean? Basically that compatibility with certain wireless networks will be an issue. The Samsung Galaxy S III being sold through Amazon is a GSM phone, which means it won’t work on Verizon or Sprint’s networks. It’s not fully supported by T-Mobile, and while it will work with AT&T’s HSPA+ network, this device won’t work with LTE or 4G networks. (Even the Amazon listing encourages buyers to check with their network providers before purchasing.)

If you don’t mind being tethered to a carrier and would rather have a 4G/LTE-ready version of the phone at a much cheaper price, you’ll probably want to wait out the month, as the phone is expected to come to the U.S. sometime this summer. And at least you’ll know that it will work with your wireless network.

Tesla Shares on Another Joy Ride

John Paczkowski — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 16:04:46 +0000

Tesla’s newly listed shares roared out of the garage again today, climbing higher still in their second day of trading. After spiking 40.5 percent Tuesday, even as the broader markets tanked, shares of the electric-car company are on another tear this morning, up 22.23 percent at $29.20. Quite a run for a stock initially priced at $17.

But when a single share of Tesla (TSLA) made more Tuesday than the entire company has to date, is it sustainable?

A troubling and entirely realistic question, though one that seems to have been overlooked–or purposely ignored–by investors. Though Tesla’s technology may be formidable, its fundamentals are not. It is a company with mounting losses, falling revenue, no real production chain to speak of and a single $109,000 product, the Roadster, of which its has sold only 1,063. Sure, the company has plans for a cheaper vehicle, the $50,000 Model S sedan, and that seems to be part of what has investors so juiced about its IPO. But while Tesla says it will bring the S to market in 2013, the company admits it’s not a sure thing.

“We have not completed the design, component sourcing or manufacturing process for the Model S, so it is difficult to forecast its eventual cost, manufacturability or quality,” the company said in its IPO filing.

So why is Tesla a buy at $29.20–or, for that matter, $17?

Sprint: Even Fewer Dropped Calls, Callers

John Paczkowski — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:55:46 +0000

Good thing Sprint expects to lose fewer customers this quarter. Because if the company continues to lose them at its former rate–well, things are going to get even uglier.

Reporting a wider third-quarter loss than expected this morning, Sprint (S) said it lost 545,000 wireless customers and 801,000 more in the crucial postpaid category. That’s well below what analysts had feared, but brutal nonetheless. Even more so considering that AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ) added two million and 1.2 million total customers respectively during their latest quarters.

As I said earlier this year, Sprint is hemorrhaging subscribers like Dan Ackroyd’s exsanguinating Julia Child. And it continues to do so. The company’s churn rate, or the measure of subscribers dropping service, was 2.17 percent, up from 2.05 percent in the second quarter. Alarming, to say the least, though as the charts below (click to enlarge) indicate, the bleeding is slowing a bit.

And what of Sprint’s financial performance for the quarter? Well, put it this way: The company lost nearly half a billion dollars. For the three months ending Sept. 30, Sprint lost $478 million, or 17 cents a share. This compares with a loss of $326 million, or 11 cents a share, during the same period in 2008.

Analysts had been expecting a loss of 21 cents a share for the quarter. Revenue was $8.04 billion, down nine percent from $8.82 billion last year and below consensus estimates of $8.09 billion for the quarter.

In other words, another tough quarter for Sprint. Said Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett: “The results illustrate the enormous challenge facing Sprint. Many of the cost cuts have already been taken. Their best exclusive handset has been deployed. And still, the rock rolls downhill.”

Palm's Pre Inventory Glut

John Paczkowski — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:34:56 +0000

Discussing Palm’s first-quarter results earlier this month, the company’s leadership claimed that “the vast majority of new sales” for the quarter were generated by the Pre. Palm sold some 823,000 handsets during that period with sell-through of 810,000 units, so that’s an impressive feat. But only if the sales we’re talking about here were made to on-the-street consumers. And, according to Town Hall research analyst David Eller, it’s not entirely clear that they were.

You see, Palm (PALM) defines units sold as products sold to on-the-street customers or to resellers like Best Buy (BBY) and Amazon.com (AMZN). Which means that Palm can report a unit sold while it’s still sitting at inventory at various retail outlets. In other words, a Pre sold is not necessarily a Pre activated. As Eller notes, that’s problematic.

“We have been perplexed by a disconnect between PALM’s device units sold and our estimates of store level sell through,” Eller writes. “According to PALM’s reported sell through, inventory increased by 13k units and since the ‘vast majority’ of both the device units shipped and the device units sold were units of the Pre, there couldn’t be an inventory problem. The gap between the two is only 13k.”

Continuing, Eller adds a cautionary note: “However, since the company recognizes revenue on sell in to the channel and the company defines device units sold as units that have been shipped from Sprint (their primary customer) to either customers or second tier distributors, PALM could offer investors a high number of units shipped but still have a glut of inventory in the channel. We believe that channel inventory is currently about 11 weeks, which we believe will pressure reorder rates and make it more difficult to sell high ASP products going forward.”

An 11-week glut of inventory in the channel? If that’s the case, it’s certainly cause for concern, more so because many investors are evidently unaware that this is even a possibility. “[Palm’s definition of sold] does not appear to be understood by investors,” Eller notes. “We polled several of the investors who attended the Boston road show lunch and each was under the impression that sell through translated into customer activations. How can this be?”

Good question. Palm and Sprint (S) investors both might want to pay a bit more attention to Sprint’s 10-k in the future.

I’ve asked Palm for comment and will update this post when it responds.

UPDATE: This just in from Palm:

“The sell-through data we post reflects carriers’ sales to their customers. For example, Sprint customers include consumers who buy in a Sprint store, and Sprint retail partners such as Best Buy and RadioShack. We rely on our wireless carriers to provide us with sell-through data, and we note this fact in our 10Q.”

[Image credit: Flickr/Spintar]

Palm's Pre Inventory Glut

John Paczkowski — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:34:56 +0000

Good question. Palm and Sprint (S) investors both might want to pay a bit more attention to Sprint’s 10-k in the future.

I’ve asked Palm for comment and will update this post when it responds.

UPDATE: This just in from Palm:

[Image credit: Flickr/Spintar]

Pre-Mature Elaboration: Sprint Cancels Palm Pre Offer

John Paczkowski — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:00:17 +0000

If there’s a Guinness World Record for shortest-lived promotional offer by a wireless carrier, Sprint’s (S) surely a front-runner for it.

Just six or so hours after offering a $100 service credit to new subscribers who purchase a Palm (PALM) Pre and port their numbers over from another carrier, Sprint canceled it. Here’s the company’s official statement on the matter:

“After further internal review today, the offer of a port-in service credit of $100 to new customers who buy the Palm Pre has been pulled, because it was put into the system in error.”

The company tells me it will honor its obligation to anyone who purchased a Pre during the brief window in which this offer was open.

Remarkably, the offer page is still live on Sprint’s site as I write this. Unbelievable. What a Keystone Kops-style marketing blunder.

New from Sprint: The $99 Palm Pre [UPDATED]

John Paczkowski — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:02:26 +0000

UPDATE:Well, that was fast. Sprint has cancelled the offer.

Sprint effectively lowered the price of the Palm Pre today to $99 for new customers only, offering a $100 service credit to those who port their numbers over from another carrier. To be eligible for the promotion, first noted by Pali Research, customers must purchase the Pre along with a two-year service agreement and abandon their current carriers. Agree to that and Sprint will apply a $100 credit to your monthly bill over a three-month period.

The offer, which begins today and runs through Oct. 10 (or Oct. 31, depending on which page of Sprint’s site you’re looking at), should goose sales, if only a bit–assuming Sprint (S) advertises the Palm (PALM) Pre offering.

“We believe sales of the Pre have been fairly stable over the past month but a price cut to $99 should stimulate sales into the end of Q3, as it would for any popular phone,” Pali Research analyst Walter Piecyk told Digital Daily. “Operators have been getting more aggressive on phone subsidies in Q3, which is likely a reflection of the maturity of the wireless industry in the United States, which is at 90 percent penetration.” (Click on image below to enlarge.)

UPDATE: Here’s the official explanation from Sprint, which seems to have resolved its internal confusion over the offer’s expiration date.

“Starting today, customers can get a $100 service credit when they move their number from another wireless carrier to a Palm Pre from Sprint and activate a new line of service with a two-year agreement. The $100 service credit will be applied to the customer’s Sprint bill within three invoices. This offer is available in to consumers and individual-liable business customers in all channels except WalMart. The offer expires Oct. 10, 2009.”

UPDATE: Sprint has cancelled the offer. You’ll find further details, here.

McNamee’s Elevation Partners Henceforth Known as Exaggeration Partners

John Paczkowski — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:17:53 +0000

“June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.”

– Palm investor Roger McNamee, March 6, 2009

“The statement…that ‘not one’ person who bought an Apple, Inc. iPhone on the first shipment date ‘will still be using an iPhone a month’ after the two-year anniversary of that day is an exaggerated prediction of consumer behavior pattern and is withdrawn.”

– Palm Free Writing Prospectus, March 9, 2009

Good thing Palm withdrew investor Roger McNamee’s your-next-iPhone-will-be-a-Pre claim because there obviously wasn’t much truth to it. If there was, well, there would have been a massive rush on Pres nationwide this past month. And that clearly didn’t happen.

In fact, by all indications, the Pre hasn’t even come close to performing as well at market as McNamee promised. Though it was the most successful handset launch in Sprint’s history, it didn’t come close to supplanting the Apple (AAPL) iPhone. Hell, it couldn’t even stop Sprint from losing 991,000 subscribers during the second quarter of 2009.

Which is not to say that the Pre and what it’s done for Palm (PALM) aren’t remarkable. Any device capable of transforming a $423 million market cap into a $2.9 billion one in 12 months is nothing short of a miracle, as I’ve noted before. Seriously, check out the chart below.

It’s just that McNamee was, and is, as full of it as a beef ranch manure truck. Because at a run rate of roughly 25,000 per week (according to the latest stats from Pali Research), Pre sales are decent. Nothing more, nothing less.

Consider this: In its first quarter, 8.6 percent of Sprint’s (S) 35.4 million post-paid subscribers upgraded handsets. In its latest quarter approximately nine percent of the company’s 34.4 million post-paid subs upgraded. So despite all the hoopla over the Pre, just 15,000 to 50,000 more Sprint users upgraded their handsets this quarter than last quarter, a period with no important handset launches.

Given Sprint’s substantial base of Palm handset owners, that’s not exactly impressive. Makes you wonder if that “accidental” price cut we saw at Best Buy (BBY) earlier this week might become an official one before the end of summer.

Below, McNamee pokes fun at himself in the video introduction to his D7 appearance:

[ See post to watch video ]

Sprint: Fewer Dropped Calls, Callers

John Paczkowski — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:24:01 +0000

The Palm Pre has proven a far better curative for the handset maker than for Sprint, its exclusive carrier. Certainly, the Pre doesn’t appear to have done much to reverse Sprint’s decline.

Reporting second-quarter earnings this morning (release, investor presentation), Sprint (S) posted a loss of $384 million, or 13 cents a share as customers defected to rival carriers. Revenue tumbled 10 percent to $8.14 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of two cents on revenue of $8.13 billion.

A nasty miss, and one made worse by the loss of 991,000 subscribers in the crucial postpaid category. This after the troubled wireless carrier lost more than one million postpaids in the first quarter of 2009 and 1.27 million in the quarter prior to that. Sprint’s total subscriber count today: 48.8 million. As I said earlier this year, Sprint is hemorrhaging subscribers like Dan Ackroyd’s exsanguinating Julia Child.

And the Pre hasn’t done much to stanch the bleeding, though CEO Dan Hesse says Palm’s (PALM) smartphone has helped some. “In the second quarter, we made further progress on our efforts to enhance financial stability, improve the customer experience and reinvigorate the brand,” he said in a statement. “The widespread visibility surrounding our record-breaking June launch of the Palm Pre handset gave us an unprecedented opportunity to showcase these improvements to customers as ‘a new Sprint.’”

Indeed. Too bad so few people seem to be interested in them.

UPDATE:
During a conference call with analysts, Hesse suffered a barrage of questions about the Pre, its sales and how Sprint is faring against the iPhone 3GS. He declined to provide sales figures for the Pre and said only that its introduction has helped stave off customer churn. “I don’t want you to think there’s no impact from the iPhone,” he said. “It’s a successful device, but we’ve mitigated the impact with a strong device lineup.”

Slowing Palm Pre Sales Actually Not Slowing

John Paczkowski — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:46:56 +0000

Are sales of the Pre slowing or not? Without official numbers from Palm or Sprint, it’s nearly impossible to tell. But that hasn’t stopped analysts from taking a stab at it. Earlier this week, Pali Research analyst Walter Piecyk issued a research note claiming channel checks show a gradual tapering off of Pre sales, from an estimated 50,000-60,000 units sold the week ending June 26 to just over 30,000 last week.

Today brings another Palm-related research note, this one from Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette. He claims that Pre sales are “robust.” According to Faucette’s channel checks, Palm is selling about 40,000 Pres per week, a “normalized” sell-through rate that he says will continue through August.

So who’s right? Piecyk or Faucette? Who knows? Until Palm (PALM) and Sprint (S) go on record with real sales metrics, we’ll have to use our imaginations. Which is pretty much what all these analysts appear to be doing right now, anyway. Honestly, they might as well be issuing research notes on jelly bean jar guessing games.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, Palm and Sprint are not willing to release sales numbers right now. Reached for comment, Sprint told me, “We’re excited by the response to Palm Pre. Demand continues to be strong, and we are working closely with our partners at Palm to meet the needs of every customer as quickly as possible.” And Palm told me me to call Sprint…

Sprint to Ericsson: Take My Network Operations…Please

John Paczkowski — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:00:24 +0000

Sprint has found a novel way to improve its network operations: Turn them over to Ericsson. On Thursday, the wireless carrier announced a long-rumored plan to outsource its network to Ericsson. The seven-year, $5 billion deal will see Ericsson servicing, provisioning and maintaining Sprint’s CDMA, iDEN, and wireline networks. Under its terms, Ericsson (ERIC) will take on 6,000 Sprint (S) employees as part of the arrangement. Sprint will retain ownership of its cell towers and control over its network strategy and investment decisions.

For Sprint, which is suffering from declining revenue and a thinning subscriber base, the move is a quick-and-dirty way of cutting costs and freeing up resources to focus on innovation and remedying the real and perceived issues with its services.

“This is about improving our customer experience,” Steve Elfman, head of Sprint’s network operations, said during a conference call this morning. “While we get the benefit of Ericsson’s expertise…we can focus our attention on bringing great devices, great services, great applications to them….We’ll benefit from the current scale and efficiency and expertise of Ericsson, and this will keep improving over time.”

Sprint CFO: What iPhone?

John Paczkowski — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:24:10 +0000

It’s been three weeks since the Palm Pre debuted and Sprint is still having trouble keeping it in stock. This according to Sprint Nextel CFO Bob Brust, who says supplies of the new handset continue to be tight.

“We still have a backlog of subscribers but it’s not unmanageable and we get shipments every week,” Brust told attendees of the Wachovia Equity Conference. “We’ll be short for a while but we’re catching up.”

Good thing. The new Palm (PALM) handset is not going to be much good at stemming subscriber losses if you can’t keep it in inventory. And as Sprint (S) well knows, there are other phones on the market, including one that’s $100 cheaper than the Pre, without the rebate.

Oh, and speaking of the iPhone 3GS, Brust says Apple’s latest handset hasn’t been having much of an impact on sales the Pre, though Apple (AAPL) sold one million units compared with a reported 50,000 for the Pre during its first weekend at market. “We don’t see any big change since the iPhone came out yet,” Brust said. “That may happen.”

That may happen. Heh.

Area Best Buy Reports Overwhelming Demand for 4 Palm Pres

John Paczkowski — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 14:22:20 +0000

The Pre, Palm’s (PALM) new bet-the-company handset, had a successful debut this past weekend. It sold out in hours at most locations on strong early demand, though limited supplies virtually ensured that would be the case. Sprint’s (S) flagship Manhattan store had 200 units at launch. Its store in Boston’s Back Bay area had only 55. Another in San Francisco’s Mission district had 60. And some Best Buy locations reported having just 2 to 4 Pres on hand when their doors opened Saturday morning. So while there may have been “widespread stockouts on strong early demand,” they were relative to a very limited supply — severely limited, you might say. Which begs the question, are these shortages the result of capacity constraints in manufacturing or the limitations of Palm’s balance sheet? Or were they engineered to foster an image of overwhelming demand? Of course my local Best Buy sold out of the Pre in short order. It only had four phones. Easy to sell out in a few hours or moments when there are so few phones to be had.

So, are Palm and Sprint constraining supply here? “Absolutely not,” Palm spokesperson Lynn Fox told me, noting that supply is being spread out across a large base of 1,200 Sprint Stores and Best Buy and Radio Shack locations as well. “We’re actively producing product and getting it out there as fast as we can because demand is very, very high. Sprint tells us they have never seen higher demand for a smartphone.”

Palm shares are down more than 8 percent this morning at $11.93.

QOTD

John Paczkowski — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:02:17 +0000

You’re not going to get a critical mass of developers coding for the new platform until you give them devices. There’s only so many things you can control in the initial delivery.

– Kevin Packingham, senior vice president for product and technology development at Sprint, explains the paucity of apps the Palm Pre will launch with tomorrow

Sprint CEO to Pre Buyers: Get Your Sleeping Bags Ready

John Paczkowski — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:00:23 +0000

One of the simplest ways to create a shortage, and the buying frenzy that typically accompanies it, is to announce that there will be one. And this is precisely what Sprint CEO Dan Hesse did for the Palm Pre Tuesday. Speaking at J.P. Morgan’s Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference shortly after Sprint announced the handset’s street date, Hesse said he anticipates that supplies will be limited, at least initially. “We don’t intend to advertise it heavily early on because we think we are going to have shortages for a while,” Hesse said. “We won’t be able to keep up with demand for the device in the early period of time.”

Interesting thing to say in advance of a product launch on which so much is riding, don’t you think? Unless you’re already trying to foster the perception of excess demand. As Gartner analyst Hugues De La Vergne noted last month, “It’s important to have a success like selling out. The Pre has to live up to the hype or else they’ll lose their momentum to rival products coming out soon after.” And clearly, that’s a very real danger here. Though, to be fair, there are other possible explanations. It could simply be responsible production scheduling. It might also be that Palm’s financial situation has forced the company to temper its launch run-rate in order to retain adequate capital for marketing and customer service. Or it could be that Pre really is the blockbuster device Palm (PALM) and Sprint (S) believe it to be and no amount of supply will be enough to meet the initial and overwhelming demand for it. It could be that the Pre is the next Apple (AAPL) iPhone.

“What the iPhone has shown is that if you really do have a compelling device that is revolutionary then customers will switch to your service,” said Hesse. “We think the Palm Pre stacks up very well against the iPhone.”

We’ll find out come June 6.

Palm Pre: $199 After a $100 Rebate We Hope You Lose

John Paczkowski — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:08:51 +0000

“[The Pre is ] extremely competitively priced.”

– Sprint exec. Kevin Packingham

The great truism about rebates is that anything less than 100 percent redemption is free money for the companies offering them. That’s something Palm and Sprint are clearly counting on as they bring Palm’s new Pre handset to market with a $100 rebate.

The companies tout the Pre’s selling price as $199, but really that’s a bit disingenuous. If you intend to buy one, you still have to walk into the store with $299. Sure, you’ll be given that rebate, but Palm (PALM) and Sprint (S) are both hoping you won’t use it. And statistically speaking, you may not. Sahir Anand, Research Director at Aberdeen Group, says rebate redemption rates among the 175 organizations he recently surveyed were just 58 percent. Customers who failed to submit their rebates either found them too cumbersome or simply forgot about them. And that can end up being quite profitable for the companies that issue them. Consider this: In 2004, TiVo (TIVO) promised customers a $100 mail-in rebate within six to eight weeks of the purchase of a new DVR. About 50,000 of the 104,000 eligible for that offer failed to take advantage of it. That saved TiVo about $5 million.

How much might Palm and Sprint save on the Pre rebate program? It’s impossible to say with any degree of specificity, but certainly enough to raise the average selling price of the device above $199. Perhaps even well above it, if Aberdeen’s metrics are borne out.

Sprint: Tourniquet, Please, Redux

John Paczkowski — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:35:32 +0000

It’s almost as if Sprint Nextel’s postpaid customers can hardly wait for their contracts to expire so they can jump to another carrier. The troubled wireless carrier lost more than one million postpaids in the first quarter of 2009 amid fierce competition from rivals AT&T (T) and Verizon Wireless (VZ). “We are far from satisfied with our postpaid performance,” Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said during a conference call with analysts. “We need to do better.”

Indeed. Because while Sprint (S) offset many of those postpaid defections with big gains in the prepaid and wholesale markets–the company lost only 182,000 subscribers, net, thanks to additions from Boost Mobile and to its partnership with Amazon (AMZN) for the Amazon Kindle–postpaid subscribers are the industry’s most valuable. They usually spend more on their service, and because they’re typically bound by contract, they’re less likely to cancel service as customers who aren’t. So, the fact that Sprint’s postpaid subscribers have been fleeing the company in droves for six straight quarters is not a good sign. That said, this is the the largest quarter-to-quarter improvement in net customer additions at Sprint Nextel in recent memory (click on chart below), so things are improving, if only a bit.

Sprint posted a loss of $594 million or 21 cents per share in its first quarter, a decline of 18 percent, compared with a loss of $505 million or 18 cents per share for the same period a year ago. Revenue was $8.21 billion, down about 12 percent, and a fair bit less than the $8.28 billion analysts had been expecting.

One hopes the debut of Palm’s (PALM) new Pre handset in the months ahead will do something to change that.

Sprint's Pre Exclusivity: Is Through 2009 Long Enough?

John Paczkowski — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:30:08 +0000

Sprint (S) hasn’t yet disclosed how long its exclusivity period for Palm’s (PALM) new Pre handset will be, but a person familiar with the matter told Reuters Thursday that it will run through the end of 2009, and that was good enough for the company’s long-suffering investors. Sprint shares surged on the report though it didn’t offer any details beyond 2009 or even a ballpark launch date for the device itself. Unofficial estimates have the Pre arriving at market sometime this spring, which might mean Sprint’s exclusivity period for the touchscreen phone could be six to eight months. Whether that’s time enough to reverse the company’s subscriber losses–or even stem them–remains to be seen. Certainly, the Pre would have to debut with an almost iPhone-like popularity to do so.

Sprint Paring Losses Almost as Quickly as Subscriber Base

John Paczkowski — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 16:10:26 +0000

Sprint Nextel has been hemorrhaging subscribers like Dan Ackroyd’s exsanguinating Julia Child for the past several quarters and its latest one was no different. Announcing fourth-quarter results that, remarkably, came in ahead of expectations, the much diminished wireless carrier said it lost 1.27 million customers during the period, for a loss of 4.58 million subscribers in 2008. Sprint ended the year with 49.3 million wireless customers, down 8.4 percent from 53.8 million customers at the end of 2007.

Ugly.

That said, Sprint’s (S) fourth-quarter net loss was narrower than expected–excluding write-downs, it came in at one cent per share, beating analysts’ expectations of a loss of three cents per share. According to Sprint CEO Dan Hesse, there’s some hope in that. “Subscriber losses and revenue declines are obviously unacceptably high,” he said during the company’s earnings call. “But it takes time for perceptions about our customer care and financial stability to catch up to the reality.”

Indeed.

Hopefully, the debut of Palm’s (PALM) new Pre handset later this year will do something to further that. Company expectations for it are clearly quite high. Said Hesse, “We are bullish about the potential for this device.”

Sprint’s long-suffering shares rose 64 cents, or 24 percent, to $3.35 in early morning trading.

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