The Apple iPhone 4S has been released to much fanfare and 4 million units sold, not bad. One has to think, without the virtuoso Steve Jobs, will future iDevices still retain their top spots? According to a report from CNET, the Apple iPhone 4S was not the last iDevice Mr. Jobs worked on. Steve’s last hand’s on project is the iPhone 5. What comes after that is just “another” iPhone and without Steve’s genius at the helm, I sense trouble for Apple.

Apple without a doubt employs some of the best engineers in the world, yet Steve Jobs was the key that opened the magic chest the iPhone and other iDevices came out of. This is the large elephant sitting in the room no one wants to acknowledge. Did Steve Jobs create an amazing roadmap for Apple to follow? Most likely not. This leaves Apple and current CEO, Tim Cook to innovate…but we already know what Apple looks like without Steve and it isn’t pretty.

Apple will remain in the smartphone race for years to come on name alone; however without a visionary like Steve Jobs controlling the reins, Apple may be lost in the shuffle. Unless someone steps up, Apple will be an also-ran and that will be detrimental to the entire industry. I will make it clear, the mobile industry needs a strong market leader and that will be Apple up until the iPhone 5 is released. Afterwards, the market will be fair game.

Does Google take advantage and increase its already huge market lead? Will RIM bounce back and become a true competitor to Google, Apple and Microsoft? Could Microsoft with the help of Nokia take the market by storm? These questions and the others like them will need time for answers. Until then, Apple you have a year or so to make the successor of the iPhone 5 “the next iPhone” and not just “another” iPhone. Your future may depend on it.