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.”

For its third quarter, the company posted a profit Wednesday that fell 24 percent from a year earlier but still beat expectations. Sales slipped 17 percent. The specifics: Revenue topped out at $8.16 billion, down from $9.79 billion for the same period last year but better than the $8.07 billion analysts had expected. Sales were $8.2 billion, topping analysts’ forecasts of $8.1 billion. Excluding one-time charges for acquisition costs, Cisco (CSCO) earned 30 cents per share, a nickel more than the Street had been looking for.

So, overall, a good report that exceeded expectations with numbers that, by any standard, are pretty damn ugly. “Cisco delivered solid financial performance despite a challenging global economy and period of evolving market dynamics,” said CEO John Chambers. “These results demonstrate our ability to drive operational excellence and manage profitability across varying economic cycles.”

One way of putting it, I suppose. Certainly investors are eating it up. Cisco shares rose on the news.

“We are preconfigured for the downturn.”

– Sun CEO Jon Schwartz, Oct. 13, 2008

Looks like Sun is “aligning its business with the global economic climate” again… The company will sack 1,500 employees this week, a company spokesperson confirmed to Digital Daily. The move is part of the restructuring plan Sun announced last November and will affect “all functions, geographies and levels.”

In January, Sun confirmed that it had laid off 1,300 employees as part of its November plan to cut 18 percent of its workforce. With this latest round of cuts, that number is pushing toward 3,000.

News of cuts comes as acquisition talks between IBM (IBM) and Sun (JAVA) continue, suggesting perhaps that IBM prefers its acquisition targets lean…

Sun’s statement on the matter in full:

Sun continues to make important choices to streamline operations and align resources to best address market opportunity and position the company for improved financial performance and long term growth. In November 2008, Sun announced a series of changes designed to align its cost model with the global economy and accelerate the introduction of compelling open source innovations. As part of that effort Sun announced a global workforce reduction of approximately 5,000 to 6,000 employees, representing approximately 15% to 18% of the Company’s global workforce. In January, layoff notifications were given to approximately 1,300 employees as part of that action.

This week, Sun can confirm that notifications are being given to approximately 1,500 as part of this effort.  Reductions are being made across all levels, including vice presidents and directors. Sun remains committed to its strategy with a consistent focus on providing innovations that enable customers to address their business needs. We continue to see great opportunities for our technologies globally and are focused on our customers and partners.

We will continue to provide updates on our progress against the workforce reduction plan as they come available.

There’s a lot of emphasis at this unveiling on environmental concerns, reducing the footprint for manufacturing the new notebooks.

Says Ives: “We’ve refined every detail in service of the user.”

Steve Jobs announces that it’s time for Q&A, but with a caveat. No questions about the economy, he says, or Apple’s financial performance because there will be an earnings report next week. And no questions about “my health,” he adds, as a new slide appears on the big screen above him showing his blood pressure.

As the audience laughs, Jobs welcomes Apple COO Tim Cook and Phil Schiller, senior vice president of worldwide marketing, to the stage to take questions from the audience.

Apple (AAPL) does not have an exclusive on the new Nvidia chip, but it will be first to market. “And we’re buying a lot of chips.”

Why no Blu-ray? “Blu-ray is just a bag of hurts,” says Jobs. Apple is waiting things out before “passing that cost burden on to consumers.”

Jobs expects the redesigns to trigger a refresh cycle in both the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Someone asks why there are no matte screens. Answer: “The vast majority of our customers prefer a glossy finish.”

The 17-inch MacBook Pro is still available, but it has not been refreshed like the other models.

Final question: “Do touchscreens make sense on laptops?” Jobs’s reply: “We’ve experimented with them, but they don’t make a lot of sense to us.”

So no tablet.

And with that, the event is over.