Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Chris Schmidt

Sprint this week announced its results for the second quarter of 2008, which included the loss of nearly a million customers - while AT&T gained 1.3 million and Verizon got another 1.5 million.

"As customers tighten their spending during rough economic times and when nearly nine out of every 10 Americans already own a cellphone, winning customers from a competitor is the only way to grow quickly," writes the NYT's Laura M. Holson. "And at that task, analysts say, Sprint is struggling."

"Sprint's quarterly performance continues to show that the carrier - unlike the market leaders - faces challenges tied to sluggish economy and longer enterprise sales cycles, as well as customer support problems lingering from before [CEO Dan] Hesse came on board," writes InternetNews' Judy Mottl.

Still, according to Computerworld's Matt Hamblen, the news isn't all bad. "Hesse said the new Instinct smart phone, introduced in June, quickly experienced record sales," he writes. "And the company's Simply Everything network plans are making inroads with certain 'high-value customers,' which in turn can reduce customer turnover, he said."

"Is Sprint dead yet?" asks ZDNet's Larry Dignan. "Nope, but the clock is ticking and the company could become a wireless zombie. After all, Sprint is raising $3 billion in a private placement to keep running and pay down debt."

More here from the Washington Post ... more here from BusinessWeek ... more here from MarketWatch ... more here from the WSJ ... more here from Bloomberg ... more here from Sprint Connection ... and the press release is here.