With the advent of the Apple’s Let's Talk iPhone event Tuesday rumors are strengthening that there will be only a iPhone 4S and no iPhone 5.

German blog ifun.de managed to take a screen shot of the Vodafone listings that showed an iPhone 4 with 8 GB storage capacity and an iPhone 4S in data storage capacities of 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. More striking in the listings was the absence of any mention of an iPhone 5.

Meanwhile, Gizmodo Brazil has also reported that a new lower-priced model of the iPhone is being manufactured by the Brazilian Foxconn plant and is ready to be delivered.

In spite of continued economic concerns and high unemployment in the U.S., phone buyers are increasingly choosing smartphones over feature phones. To cash in, Apple may offer a mid-range smartphone.

The cheaper iPhone, armored with powerful hardware, will be in a position to counter the Android devices that have inundated the market with low- to mid-priced smartphones. With a new operating system, enhanced hardware and a probable mid-ange device, Apple is poised to step up the competition with Android.

As of now Android has a 43 per cent share of the smartphone pie in the United States, followed by Apple with a 28 per cent share. RIM (BlackBerry) has an 18 per cent share of the U.S. market for now, but that's quickly dwindling with only 9 per cent of recent buyers having purchased a new RIM handset. So the main competition is between Apple iPhones and Android devices.

In addition, if the rumored iPhone 4S comes with upgrades in key areas like the display, processor and battery life, it won't be much of a disappointment for consumers.

So it looks increasingly likely that iPhone 4S might launch today and iPhone 5 might not appear until 2012.

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