Verizon Wireless turned in another strong quarter with total revenues up 9.1% to $17.7 billion. The carrier ended the quarter with 107.7 million total connections, marking a 6.5% year-over-year increase. It also banked $7.2 billion in net income, increasing 7.5% from the year-ago period.

Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million total connections in the third quarter, including 882,000 retail postpaid customers, and 367,000 wholesale and other connections. By contrast, AT&T added 2.1 million wireless subscribers during the same period, lead heavily by M2M and other connected devices. Read more

AT&T’s iPhone sales declined in the third quarter, but that should come as no surprise following Apple’s earnings earlier this week.

AT&T benefited greatly, and exclusively, from the new iPhones previously released by Apple in the third quarters of 2009 and 2010. That didn’t happen this year, and AT&T’s year-over-year wireless revenue growth slowed as a result. The company reported $3.6 billion in profit, declining more than 70% from the year-ago period. Revenues were down 0.3% to $31.5 billion. Read more

Apple fired a rare miss last quarter with slowed growth, declining iPhone sales and a drop in profit. iPhone sales were pointedly down in the second half of the quarter after iOS 5 was announced and speculation of a new iPhone intensified.

As always, Apple is playing the slip off in a typically calm, cool and collected manner. The drop in iPhone sales was less than expected, according to executives, and CEO Tim Cook said he is “confident that (Apple) will set an all-time record for iPhone this quarter.”

iPhone sales were up 21% year-over-year to 17.07 million units, but down from the previous two quarters. Year-over-year iPad sales shot up 166% to a new high of 11.12 million, Mac sales jumped 26% to 4.89 million and iPod sales declined 27% to 6.62 million. Read more

Apple broke more records over the weekend, selling more than four million of its new iPhone 4S in its first three days on the market. The company also announced that more than 25 million customers are using iOS 5 five days after its release and more than 20 million customers have signed up for its iCloud service.

Apple served up more than 1 million pre-orders for the iPhone 4S in the first 24 hours and went on sell four times that amount over opening weekend.

Sales numbers did not disappoint, despite the issues Apple faced over the weekend as an untold number of users reported errors with the device’s new voice-activated service, Siri. Read more

Millions of BlackBerry users spanning at least four continents are without service for a third consecutive day. An untold number of customers, not all however, are unable to send messages, emails or browse the web in parts of North and South America, Africa, Middle East and Europe.

A little more than an hour ago, Research In Motion admitted that it’s still working to resolve the “service issue that many of our BlackBerry customers are experiencing.”

The early outages occurred Monday in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, but as of this morning they have reached the Americas — and they are ongoing. Read more

iPads generate more mobile traffic than all other iOS devices combined

Mobile devices comprised 6.8% of all online traffic in August 2011. Nearly two-thirds of that traffic came from mobile phones while tablets accounted for the remainder, according to a new report from comScore.

The number of U.S. subscribers consuming mobile media grew 19% in the past year to 116 million people. While the growth is noteworthy, it also highlights the large untapped market for mobile data that still exists. Read more

Apple hit a new record last Friday, surpassing 1 million pre-orders for the new iPhone 4S in the first 24 hours. The previous one-day record, held by the iPhone 4, was 600,000 pre-orders.

The iPhone 4S is the first iPhone available at more than one U.S. carrier at launch. Apple has greater reach now with AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. None of the carriers broke down pre-order sales figures, though more details should come after the iPhone 4S is available for purchase (and begins shipping) this Friday.

Following its pre-order run, it appears all but certain that Apple will break all other previously established records with the iPhone 4S at launch and going forward. Volume totals are likely to be shared by Apple and the carriers when each of the companies release their quarterly earnings in the coming weeks. Read more

It’s what’s inside that counts. That’s the statement Apple Inc. is making with the new iPhone 4S.

It may look exactly the same as the iPhone 4, but the new iPhone 4S is rocking a re-engineered interior that Apple hopes will keep the iOS train humming along well through the next product cycle.

Apple is taking a gamble, albeit a safe and proven one, by not changing the design of the new iPhone. After the longest break yet between new iPhone releases (almost 16 months), public and industry expectations were set for an iPhone 5 — in other words, an iPhone that looks different and works different.

The iPhone 4S is coming to AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless and for the first time, Sprint Nextel Corp. It goes up for pre-sale Friday and hits store shelves on Oct. 14. iOS 5 will be available as a free upgrade on Oct. 12. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

For the first time since 2008, Apple Inc. (AAPL) declined to introduce a new iPhone today at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco. CEO Steve Jobs and his team of executives pulled few, if any, surprises on stage, however the software and services upgrades announced today are arguably the biggest leap forward for iOS as a whole since Apple launched the App Store and opened up its platform to third-party developers more than three years ago.

While Apple’s series of announcements about iOS 5 and iCloud were significant, they’re also likely to receive a tempered reception because most of the news fell in line with rumors that were in heavy circulation leading up to today. On the flip side, Apple stirred up the mobile pot some more and likely upped the game for many startups and enterprise-focused incumbents that rely on its platform and massive user base for customers and revenue. Read more

**As published in RCR Wireless News**

I switch smart phones like they’re going out of style. Mostly because they are always going out of style. I’ve broken more carrier contracts and paid for more devices at full retail price than I care to admit.

Last month, it all happened again. I’m one of those defectors who ditched their iPhones with AT&T Mobility and switched to Verizon Wireless.

I’ve been an on-again, off-again iPhone customer with AT&T Mobility through every version that Apple Inc. has released since the summer of 2007. I’ve had many ups and downs with the device and the quality of service AT&T Mobility provides. As a result, I have been tempted away various times along the way to other carriers and devices. But I kept coming back for more. Read more