Apple may ditch iPhone's iconic home button in 2017
A source who in the past has correctly shared information about Apple's future product plans indicated on Monday that Apple is indeed planning on removing the home button from future iPhone hardware.
![[Photo: Reuters]](https://akm-img-a-in.tosshub.com/businesstoday/images/story/201608/iphone-4-660_011413071426_040813072506_050416021934_083016103832.jpg?size=948:533 "[Photo: Reuters]")
- Aug 30, 2016,
- Updated Aug 30, 2016 10:40 AM IST
Apple may do away with the iPhone's iconic home button next year.
That's according to a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Gareth Allan which cites a 'person familiar with the matter'.
The change could mean that the iPhone in 2017 will feature a much larger screen and, if rumours are to be believed, an all-glass design.
Instead of a button, fingerprint sensors would be built into the screen to allow the firm's Touch ID system to work.
"Apple is already at work on a major redesign of the iPhone for 2017 that focuses more heavily on the display by removing the Home button, according to a person familiar with the matter,' Gurman and Allan write.
Similar reports on the removal of the home button have emerged over the past year.
"A source who in the past has correctly shared information about Apple's future product plans indicated on Monday that Apple is indeed planning on removing the home button from future iPhone hardware," AppleInsider wrote in June.
And a recent patent suggests that the Cupertino-based company is working on a method that places the sensor under the display and uses ultrasound imaging to find the user's fingerprint.
This new method means that the chunky bottom bezel of the iPhone could be transformed into a sleek extension of the screen.
Many believe the company is waiting until next year, the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone, to stage a major upgrade.
"Current home buttons are switches that physically press into the phone, but the new models will have a pressuresensitive button that employs so-called haptic feedback," according to Bloomberg's' sources.
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Apple may do away with the iPhone's iconic home button next year.
That's according to a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Gareth Allan which cites a 'person familiar with the matter'.
The change could mean that the iPhone in 2017 will feature a much larger screen and, if rumours are to be believed, an all-glass design.
Instead of a button, fingerprint sensors would be built into the screen to allow the firm's Touch ID system to work.
"Apple is already at work on a major redesign of the iPhone for 2017 that focuses more heavily on the display by removing the Home button, according to a person familiar with the matter,' Gurman and Allan write.
Similar reports on the removal of the home button have emerged over the past year.
"A source who in the past has correctly shared information about Apple's future product plans indicated on Monday that Apple is indeed planning on removing the home button from future iPhone hardware," AppleInsider wrote in June.
And a recent patent suggests that the Cupertino-based company is working on a method that places the sensor under the display and uses ultrasound imaging to find the user's fingerprint.
This new method means that the chunky bottom bezel of the iPhone could be transformed into a sleek extension of the screen.
Many believe the company is waiting until next year, the 10th anniversary of the original iPhone, to stage a major upgrade.
"Current home buttons are switches that physically press into the phone, but the new models will have a pressuresensitive button that employs so-called haptic feedback," according to Bloomberg's' sources.
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