Dozens of rumors and expectations were ruined yesterday when Apple announced its iPhone 4S instead of the iPhone 5. All those mockups and sketches end up being worthless. Could Steve Jobs have had a say on this? I guess so. Steve Jobs was the one responsible for creating Apple as we know it, reinventing it several times along the way. This is his main "feature," and it's something he's very good at. Unfortunately, due to his health problems, he was forced to step down as CEO. With Steve Jobs out, the rest of the summer was all about rumors: We saw a lot of iPhone designs, heard about a lot of changes. Yesterday, they all turned out to be false. The only rumor that was true was about an iPhone 4S version. It was the same iPhone 4, but with improved hardware, software and features. In the same old Apple manner, executives took the stage to present it, though no one was there to see a video game, an intelligent voice assistant or how the Chinese hurried to buy an Apple product. And, remember, this was 15 months after the previous iPhone 4 announcement. The keynote and the intensity of applause wasn't that loud as it's been during previous Apple keynotes. It seemed that the participants laughed at bad jokes or cheered at nothing but some ordinary features. We were all expecting Tim Cook to prove that is the right successor to Steve Jobs and have what it takes to announce a wonderful new product: the iPhone 5. But no, we ended up seeing a lot of movement and nothing interesting was announced. Shortly after the keynote, a lot of people were disappointed at the announcement. That's not Tim Cook's fault. I think we're all used to seeing keynotes where Steve Jobs takes the stage to present another Apple innovation, another step forward, another incredible device. Without Steve Jobs, Apple is weakened, which could mean one last chance for competitors to regain their market share. Assuming that Apple releases the next iPhone in June (let the rumors begin), competitors like Samsung, HTC, Google, RIM and others have at least eight months to come up with a better iPhone 4S alternative. With the 4S on the market, I predict an avalanche of new smartphones at the end of this year and the beginning of 2012.