Despite underwhelming reception from the press, on Oct. 14 Apple released the newest iteration of its mega-popular iPhone line, the iPhone 4S.

The company reported that they received over a million pre-orders, and as usual, lines outside of Apple retailers were sure to keep store employees busy the entire day.

It’s amazing to think that after months of speculation about whether Apple was going to release a proper successor to the iPhone 4, consumers are just as content to shell out money for a model that is little more than a minor upgrade.

However, there is something to be said about Apple ‘s marketing strategy. They are among the best at creating a need for a product, whether it is something new or a familiar design with a couple of new features. It seems like every six to eight months, there’s an Apple press conference that manages to grab the entire world’s attention. While this most recent gathering introduced a product that many in the industry deemed as a disappointment, people still felt the need to be the first in their social circles to have a 4S.

Of course, the only way to tell that someone has a 4S is for him or her to announce it, as the physical design has remained relatively unchanged. The only true “revolutionary” feature is the voice-activated personal assistant, Siri. Other than a few under-the-hood adjustments like a better camera, a faster processor and new operating system, there is not much to differentiate the 4S from the iPhone 4.

There were many expectations that the company would make a phone with a slimmer profile, a bigger screen and the ability to connect with the neurons in your brain (okay, that last one was a slight exaggeration). However, the fact that people are willing to accept a product that is almost a complete replica of its predecessor speaks volumes about how complacent people have become with Apple.

Technology is a field that is all about moving forward, but with the 4S, Apple seems to be playing catch-up with companies like HTC and Google. Perhaps the biggest example of this is the fact that Apple did not make the 4S compatible with 4G, thus ignoring a technology that has been around for more than a year.

Additionally, several of the 4S’s features have been used in other phones before. The HTC Evo 4G has been rocking an eight megapixel camera for over a year now. There are phones that allow you to video chat over their respective networks instead of wi-fi only. The concept of Siri has been around for awhile. Add that to the fact that Google’s Android software is in several ways more flexible than iOS, and it’s not hard to see why Apple has to rely on brand recognition to move units.

And in the end, that’s what it’s all about. Apple seems to have reached a point where they can roll out slight updates like the 4S with the satisfaction that slapping their ubiquitous logo onto it is all they need to guarantee success. If they are going to continue their legacy as a constant innovator, they are going to have to do much more than take a “more of the same and then some” approach with their next update.