The public's reaction to the iPhone 4S rollout has been less than satisfactory for Apple. Most observers were expecting an iPhone 5, but at the "Let's Talk iPhone" event, what they got was the same iPhone with a more powerful hardware.

The iPhone 4S is indeed a powerful device. The iPhone is still the gold standard for smartphones. Siri would be still be a huge part of it and the iCloud would make streaming and cloud storage possible. Basically, it will also get what iPods have been for a long time. A huge storage device for your media files. But it is not enough.

What Apple must understand is that they are not catering to photographers nor technology geeks. They are catering to the layman. They have a device with no new distinguishing feature and in no way revolutionary.

People had been talking less and less with each other in the advent of mobile phones. What makes them think that people would like talking to their phones more? Apple revolutionized the mobile phone industry with six simple words: "There is an app for that." Where is the revolution? Does the Siri add more to the capabilities of the iPhone that will get people talking?

In their defense, Apple was wise not to call the new phone the iPhone 5. The upgrades are mostly in hardware and software; upgrades do not excite people. It would be very hard to top the iPhone. In fact, the biggest problem with the iPhone 4s is that it is an iPhone. They are now limited to thinking what they can cram into the iPhone form.

What they should do is stop wasting time with patent wars and play the innovator again. Apple has placed so much importance on the form they have patented that they are not making the new standard. They have been just releasing the same standard over and over again for the last decade.

Forget the iPhone and iPad's monolithic design. Create something new, something better for the future of Apple products.

They have to start thinking what the iPhone can do that Android doesn't. Stop being afraid of competitors trying to emulate the devices and start putting up new technological mountains for them to overcome instead of policing them.

Look at Samsung. They have created a phone that is as flexible as paper. Does Apple plan on staying dormant again and waiting for existing technology to make a new device possible? Or is it scared of making another Newton?

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