Jobs Letter a Temporary Salve for Apple

Don't count on Apple (AAPL Quote) chief Steve Jobs dashing onto the stage in a surprise appearance at the Macworld show this week.

Apple fans -- aware that Jobs was not giving the big speech -- held out hope that he might show up for a quick "hello" to put health rumors to rest.

But according to Jobs, his doctors have only now discovered the source of his weight loss -- a hormone imbalance -- so it's probably safe to assume he's looking even thinner than before. Jobs says he's begun a remedy to the nutritional problem but says that it may take until Spring to regain the weight.

The problem is that Apple, whose stock was rising $4.75 to $95.50 on Monday's news, is pretty much a one-man show, at least to investors. And this time around the company wants to avoid the scene-stealing impact Jobs' alarmingly thin appearance had in June, at his last public appearance. Last month, Apple announced that marketing chief Phil Schiller, not Jobs, would deliver the keynote speech. The announcement followed months of silence as concerns about Jobs' health flourished.

Transparency isn't exactly Apple or Jobs' forte.

For example, nearly two years after Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he revealed details for the first time publicly at a Stanford commencement speech that he'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, had surgery and was fine. Before that, all Jobs and Apple ever disclosed was that he had been cured of a life-threatening illness.