As a long-time Sprint PCS customer, all I can say about this ZDNet report is, "ugh"...

Sprint loses money, more subscribers in third quarter

Sprint lost $478 million in the third quarter and performed worse than expected by analysts. It lost subscribers despite the great hope to turn thing around by introducing the Palm Pre.

Looking at it surface characteristics, it is difficult to understand why Sprint is doing so badly. They have good voice service, reasonably priced plans, good U.S. coverage, decent 3G speed and network reliability and even a good, if not exciting, selection of feature phones and smartphones to choose from.

While Verizon is the obvious choice for Apple to partner with as its second U.S. partner, I think Sprint should aggressively pursue Apple. The iPhone may be the only thing that can turn around Sprint's death spiral.