Sprint has now officially called out the iPhone in its print advertising.

This type of message translated, loosely means "we're an also-ran and we know we have no hope of ever catching the competition, essentially we give up, but we'll keep chugging anyway."

Distant number two or three companies on the verge of becoming B-list brands are famous for this. Pepsi and Burger King to name two perfect examples.

What makes the Sprint example even more pathetic is that they're attacking a single product, not the network which they directly compete against, ATT. They also really need someone else to approve their ad copy. Read the last sentence in the ad again.

If Sprint were serious about promoting the Pre then they'd at least try to do a decent job pushing its benefits and price, without bringing the iPhone into it. That's not going to help them at all, but it does keep the iPhone on people's minds. Of course they have a lot more to worry about, even without factoring in that their exclusivity is for a limited time. For instance, running an antiquated network requiring phones that aren't compatible in any other market outside of the US/Canada. Their 4G is hardly there yet. And the Pre doesn't support it anyway.