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In a open letter to the Apple community Steve Jobs revealed the reason for his weight loss to quell rumors that he was on his deathbed.  Jobs' doctors have diagnosed a "hormone imbalance that is robbing his body of proteins.  He has begun treatment and expects it will be late Spring before he regains his body mass.

Jobs notes that he wanted to concentrate on his health over the holidays rather than prepare for Mac World.

His entire letter follows or it can be read at the Apple website.

Sony Ericsson reported a 10% drop in sales from last year.

Nokia lost market share and its profits are down 30% from last year.

Google reported third quarter revenues of $5.54 billion, a 31 percent year-over-year jump and a 3 percent increase over the previous quarter.

According to the Washington Post, to help cover the McCain's ranch near Sedona Arizona, Cindy McCain and her staff got some help from wireless carriers.

First McCain offered free land for a tower from Verizon. Verizon started the very expensive process of public scrutiny, environmental concerns, and hired a contractor. It abandoned.the process and gave them a free mobile "tower on wheels" in June.

In July AT&T installed a similar portable configuration for AT&T wireless calls.

The article states, "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and his campaign have close ties to Verizon and AT&T. "

Barack Obama's attorney criticized John McCain for accepting the free cell phone towers reported James V. Grimaldi at the Post.

"This is John McCain's display of his maverick ethics: He believes he is entitled to free cell service while other Americans have to pay for theirs," said Bob Bauer, general counsel of the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign and chairman of the political law practice at Perkins Coie LLP.

COMMENT from Wireless and Mobile News

Why didn't  the campaign just install a few extra landlines?

And the winner of the most memorable Number One Wireless Moment of All Time from CTIA Wireless Association:

The first commercial cell phone call on October 13, 1983.

When a phone call placed in parking lot of Soldier Field in Chicago by Bob Barnett  in a Chrysler convertible to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell in Berlin.

At the time cell phone systems weighed much as 200 pounds and could only work with a car battery.

Launch of App Center
On Blackberry Storm with the
New OS Version

BlackBerry Bold late
RIM wants to make sure it works
On AT&T.

MetroPCS announced that In the third quarter of 2008, on a consolidated basis, MetroPCS reported gross additions of approximately 935 thousand subscribers, which represents an increase of 39% over the third quarter of 2007. 

MetroPCS ended the third quarter of 2008 with approximately 4.8 million subscribers, which includes net additions during the quarter of approximately 249 thousand subscribers. MetroPCS has added approximately 1.2 million subscribers during the twelve month period ended September 30, 2008, and continued to achieve incremental penetration in every Core and Expansion market.

"We are pleased to report 249 thousand net additions during a particularly challenging economic environment and in what has historically been our seasonally slowest quarter. Clearly, these results demonstrate the resiliency of the MetroPCS business and highlight the value proposition to our subscribers of our predictable, affordable and flexible service offerings," said Roger D. Linquist, MetroPCS' Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.

There have been exceptional wireless and mobile news the month of
September. Here are our top stories:

100 Million iPhone apps have been downloaded.

The announcements from CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment.

AT&T launched new LBS services

We reviewed the  HTC Touch Diamond (Sprint)

Research
An ABI study said Touchscreen Revs to Reach $5 Billion in 2009.
GPS is the hottest feature for Xmas.
Consumers Want NFC says an O2 Study.
32.2 Million World Smartphone Sales: Garnter Study.
58% Don't Know What Social Networking Is, 1/3 Losing Interest, Synnovate Study.
Biz Will Spend $11.6 Billion on Mobile Apps by 2012, from Compass.
Coupons, Freebies, and Ringtone Incentives are needed for mobile marketing.
Mobile Web Grows 29.4%, Film Search Leads, from Crisp Wireless.
Mobile Payments to Grow Ten Fold by 2013, says Jupiter Reaserch.
Neilsen added Segments Research.
Mobile Teens Will Be Studied by Multimedia Intelligence & Experian
EDGE, HSPA and LTE Continue to Lead 3G, Says 3G Americas
US Catches Up to Europe's 3G Adoption

Apple iPhone suit
Says ain't "twice as fast as
Ads said it would be.

Google is hiring
Android designers now.
T-Mobile needs them.

Apple sent an email stating details for purchase of the iPhone 3G at Apple Stores.

The UTStarcom Arc. clamshell phone with Bluetooth and a camera, IM and email messaging is offered by Virgin.

Only 3% of people recycle  mobile phones while many are lying around at home according to a survey released by Nokia.

There will be a Knight Rider K.I.T.T. GPS device with the same voice as the TV show.

Apisphere  partnered with interactive advertising network BuzzHub.

Action Engine Corporation and Millennial Media, will integrate Action Engine's in-application Mobile Advertising Engine (MAE) technology with Millennial Media's  MBrand network.

Olympic sponsor AT&T will produce AT&T Team USA Soundtrack to inspire and support U.S. Olympic Teams.

Yankee Group announced that wireless industry trade journalist Brian Dolan has joined the firm as Senior Analyst/Editor of the Events and Publishing Division. In this new role, Dolan will shape the programs of the firm's events, beginning with Mobile Internet World 2008, which will take place October 21-23 in Boston.

Dolan will also be responsible for writing and editing two publications: Mobile Internet Trends and WiMAX Trends.

Before joining Yankee Group, Dolan served as the editor of FierceWireless. While at Fierce, Dolan also founded publications covering the mobile content industry and IPTV.

Doing its part to help address the issue of nearly one-third of U.S. high school students dropping out, AT&T  announced the launch of AT&T Aspire, a $100 million philanthropic program, which includes job shadowing for 100,000 students nationwide, to help strengthen student success and workforce readiness.

“In the U.S., 1.2 million students drop out of high school every year. This has implications for individuals and for our nation’s global economic leadership,” said AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, who will address the topic Thursday at the Economic Club of Chicago. “AT&T Aspire is about supporting the great work already underway to help our kids succeed in school, and helping students see the connection between education and their best future.”

Through the Aspire initiative, AT&T and the AT&T Foundation are committing $100 million (over four years, 2008 - 2011) toward high school success and workforce readiness. The platform includes four key elements:

• Grants to schools and nonprofit organizations that are focused on helping students graduate from high school and become better prepared for college and/or the workforce.
• A student job shadowing initiative, involving 400,000 AT&T employee hours, that will give 100,000 students a firsthand look at the skills they will need to succeed in the 21st century workforce.
• The underwriting of national research that will explore the practitioner perspective (teachers, principals, superintendents, school counselors and school board members) on the high school dropout issue.
• Support for 100 state and community Dropout Prevention summits, announced earlier this month by America’s Promise Alliance.

Apple announced that the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group. With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold over four billion songs and features the world's largest music catalog of over six million songs.

"We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. "We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone."

Information is based on data from market research firm the NPD Group's MusicWatch survey that captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions. The iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the US based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008.

AT&T has opened its developer information with guuidelines showing developers how to create wireless applications for the first time. Shortly after the release of the iPhone SDK while the open Android platform is gaining ground.

AT&T hopes it will aid people with disabilities. Their news release states, “In an effort to encourage application developers and handset manufacturers to consider the needs of seniors or customers who have disabilities when designing products and services, AT&T Inc. announced that their approach to Universal Design will be made publicly available for the first time.”

Universal Design is the practice of designing products and applications that are usable by the broadest possible range of consumers. AT&T embraces the concept of Universal Design and has urged its handset and software partners to consider this methodology as they are developing wireless products and applications. AT&T’s recently launched Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier applications are examples of accessible products and services that result from innovative collaboration and design.

Alltel has introduced an unlimited voice plan called Freedom Unlimited for $99 per month following other carriers AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. 

3M has a new super small mini projector that could be built into cell phones, or other small devices.About the size of a wireless earpiece and less than half an inch thick, the 3M mobile projects VGA resolution images at as large as 40 inches with no speckles or glitches.

It uses an advanced liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) electronic imager in conjunction with proprietary 3M optics technology.

Comment from Wireless and Mobile News: This device could mean more boring PowerPoint presentations, slide shows of other people’s travel and stupid YouTube videos at meetings.

AT&T Inc. announced it plans to exit the shrinking pay phone business by the end of 2008. Existing contracts and customer service commitments will continue to be honored during the period that the business is being phased out.

AT&T’s Public Communications unit has continued to experience significant pressure from reduced pay phone usage, primarily as a result of the growth of alternative communications choices, such as wireless phones and personal communication devices.