One of the biggest Mac fans that we know said: „iPhone 4S is less than I expected“. I cannot agree more and even my girlfriend, the proud owner of the original iPhone, iPhone 3G and now iPhone 4 is less than excited.

Many iPhone fans including some friends expected at least an overhaul of the case. It’s kind of hard to show off a new phone that looks the same as 16-month old phone. One big reason for many that buy expensive toys is to show how cool and well off they are and with iPhone 4S on the table in your favourite cafe, everyone thinks it’s just another chap with an iPhone 4.

You can help make the distinction by using Siri and talking to your phone in public, but in most parts of Europe, people who talk to things are usually institutionalised. In others, they are appointed ministers of finance.

Many fans expected at least a 4-inch screen. We agree that 4.65- and even 5-inch screens might be too much for most users, but 3.5-inch looks rather small today. Engadget did a poll and asked its readers if they are getting iPhone 4S. Only some 25 percent said yes unequivocally, 12.6 percent said that they want new design and larger screen and an alarming 19.9 percent said that they are interested in the upcoming Nexus Prime. 17.8 percent want an iPhone 5 with LTE.

This is probably an all time low for Apple’s phones since the introduction in 2007 and let me state here that I got an iPhone back in 2007 and stopped using it when 3G came out due to lack of innovation from generation to generation. In my opinion, only the iPhone 4 was really worth getting and now I think most people will simply stick with 4 and skip the 4S until iPhone 5 comes out.

The burning issue is that Ice Cream Sandwich is coming, likely to be called Android 4.0, and there are already at least a few phones with bigger screens, faster modems, faster CPUs and graphics that put iPhone 4 and 4S in a world of trouble. Granted, iOS is somewhat better in resource management, but the lack of LTE and a bigger screen can’t be addressed by software. Besides, Android is getting better by the day and more and more people are defecting.

Once you get stuck with a mobile operating system, the change to other platform is super painful. This works to Apple’s advantage as most users will continue using iPhone 4 and wait for the real iPhone 5 rather than migrate to Google’s Nexus Prime or a similar Android phone. This is Google’s best chance to dominate and it can even help Windows Phone market to gain some attention. iOS 5 looks great, but you won’t be able to fully enjoy the difference by running it on single core iPhone 4. I used both single and dual-core ARM processors and you can barely tell a difference unless you play some optimised games. The rest just looks the same.

Now with Steve gone, and a volatile financial market that fears a possible lack of innovation on Apple’s part, tough times for Cuprertino could be ahead, at least until 28nm chips start kicking and they come up with a phone worth waiting in line for.