The Pre might have slowed the drain at Sprint but it hasn't managed to turn things around completely -- America's number three carrier posted a second-quarter loss of $384m as it lost another 257,000 subscribers. That just continues Sprint's trend of bleeding customers to the competition, and we doubt this balance sheet will turn around anytime soon -- not only will next quarter reflect the $483m purchase of Virgin Mobile USA, it's pretty clear that Verizon will get the Pre and AT&T will carry another webOS handset, leaving Mr. Hesse and crew without their shiny halo device to lure new subs to the fold. We'll see what Sprint does to turn this all around -- did someone say they need a Hero?

Here's some of the other stuff that happened in the wide world of mobile for the weekend of Saturday, July 25th, 2009:

• A small Chinese firm by the name of Beyond Radio Technology is working on an Android phone that they claim to have had in the labs for 18 months now. Problem is, they've posted screen shots, and they're clearly QVGA -- an instant fail. [Via Cloned In China]
• Sony Ericsson's PlayNow Arena app store is now accepting apps from developers. Paid apps must cost at least €3 (about $4.25), though freebies will also be allowed; free apps with ad support, however, will require some other form of agreement with Sony Ericsson. There are no submission fees or annual charges for devs, which is nice -- and interestingly, apps that are rejected will have a plan B in the form of official partner GetJar. Java and Symbian are being supported initially, with other platforms (ahem, Android) coming in the future. [Via mocoNews]
• All of the intel in the field is now pointing toward an August 5 launch for the BlackBerry 8520 "Gemini" on T-Mobile, which confirms earlier suggestions.
• Speaking of T-Mobile, the Samsung t659 -- codenamed "Scarlet" -- has been spotted in the wild. Unless you have a thing for 2 megapixel cameras, we wouldn't get too excited, but the presence of AWS 3G is always welcome.
• The global number two manufacturer, Samsung, released its Q2 results -- and they're looking pretty solid. The company managed to push some 52.3 million handsets in the three-month period and said that it'll make good on previous guidance (and then some) of hitting 200 million shipments for the year. [Via mocoNews]
• A poster over at the ever-trusty xda-developers has somehow managed to stumble upon themes for AT&T's upcoming Warhawk -- the carrier's version of the HTC Touch Diamond2 -- and they're looking mighty Windows Mobile 6.5-ish. [Via wmpoweruser.com and Fuze Mobility]

Now that the books have been cooked to a delicious golden brown, Motorola has revealed its third quarter earnings today -- and for consumers and shareholders alike, the news isn't particularly awesome. First off, they've lost $397 million in the quarter, compared with $40 million in net earnings (black ink, not red) in the same quarter a year ago. Secondly, while they've announced today that they plan to develop a full range of Android-powered handsets in 2009, they're not coming quickly; they're expected in the second half of the year at the earliest, and when you factor in the inevitable delays, that could realistically mean 2010 for some of the models. What's more, they've announced a belt-tightening plan to cut $800 million in 2009 expenditures, which will inevitably lead to some morale problems out in Schaumburg (for those who are still employed). Finally -- and we're not sure if this is ultimately good or bad news -- co-CEO Sanjay Jha has decided to hold off on selling the handset division until some time after the third quarter of 2009 due to the "macro-economic environment," which we think is code for "we couldn't give it away right now." Keep fightin', Moto.

Update: How's Moto going to save close to a billion dollars in 2009, you ask? Greg Brown, the other half of Motorola's Ambiguously Executive Duo, mentioned that it'll be trimming 3,000 jobs from the company -- 2,000 of which will be coming from the handset division. We imagine it's pretty hard for company staffers to innovate when there's a constant fear of the chopping block looming overhead.

Motorola's recognized that its mobile division's been in a train-wreck status for a little while now, yet somehow, losses continue to widen at the world's number three (for the moment, anyway) manufacturer. The company shed $194 million on sales of $7.448 billion, compared to a loss of $181 million on sales of $9.433 billion in the same quarter a year prior; we suppose the gap is narrower, but not by a heck of a lot. There's no profit in sight, either, with guidance of 2 to 4 cents per share worth of red ink in the second quarter.

As expected, the bulk of that bleeding is coming directly out of the mobile division, and to that end, USA Today sat down with CEO Greg Brown to chat about the state of the business and the impending spinoff. Brown says that by preparing for the divorce, the division's becoming more accountable for its own success -- in other words, it has a credit card and checkbook in its own name -- and that its people are becoming "energized" by the move. He wants cooler, consumer-driven products hitting the market at a consistently quick pace (one look at Samsung or LG should teach 'em a thing or two about "quick pace") and says that too great a focus on technology has led them astray recently. That sounds a little bogus to us; we certainly wouldn't call Moto devices the highest-tech around, but hey, if he wants to convince himself that his company's phones aren't selling well because they're too high-tech, we can't blame him.

Curiously, Brown paused before answering that he "feels" like the mobile division would probably benefit from using the Motorola name going forward; we'd assumed Motorola's granting of branding rights were a foregone conclusion, but it seems like those details haven't been sorted out yet. If they end up pulling even the Moto name from the new company, honestly, what's left?

Read - Greg Brown interview
Read - Q1 2008 results

Well, it looks like the aggressively priced unlimited action really didn't come a moment too soon. We're no economists here, but it doesn't take rocket science, a Ph.D., collegiate level maths, or even a fancy calculator to crunch the cold, hard numbers coming out of Sprint Nextel's fourth quarter earnings call. For starters, the number three carrier in the US reported a net loss of nearly $29.5 billion, which -- get this -- is more than the combined value of its outstanding stock. Let us reiterate for emphasis and drama value: Sprint lost more money in the fourth quarter of 2007 than the company is worth. Wow. If it's any consolation, the staggering figure is largely due to a $29.7 billion write-down of Nextel's value, which as the Wall Street Journal lays out, makes the 2005 merger officially a "Deal From Hell." With postpaid subscribers continuing to migrate to other carriers, there's no telling how to stop the hemorrhaging -- especially if the fresh $99 unlimited plan doesn't end up doing the trick -- but something tells us the move to Kansas isn't going to magically patch it all up.

Just as forecasted, Research in Motion has delivered quite the Wall Street-pleasing results in the fiscal third-quarter. The BlackBerry maker's recently released numbers showed a staggering $370.5 million profit compared to "just" $175.2 million in the same quarter last year. Furthermore, the firm's Q3 revenue rose to $1.67 billion from $835.1 million last year. According to co-CEO Jim Balsillie, it's pretty "clear [that] BlackBerry smartphones have crossed over from being viewed as a primarily enterprise product to being marketed as a strong mainstream offering," and considering the results, it's hard to argue that point. Oh, and just in case you haven't seen enough digits in one post, it should be noted that RIM shipped out more than 3.9 million handsets and added around 1.65 million BlackBerry subscribers in Q3, also. Not too shabby, eh?