IPhone Release Date 2012: Will Apple's Next Smartphone Lose Its Home Button? [SPECS]

Apple fans speculated about the new iPad's home button, with rumors flurrying around the Internet about its removal. Since that theory was killed at the product's official launch event, users are shifting their questions to the upcoming iPhone 5 release.

Official features and characteristics of Apple's next smartphone have yet to be confirmed, but speculators suggest that it may be possible to see the next iPhone without a home button.

The size, shape, function, and use of the home button on the iPad and iPhone remains a feature that users feel is bound for an upgrade-or total removal from the device, wrote iPhone 5 news blogger Michael Nace.

In exchange for the device's home button, users probably expect to see a higher quality display and a bigger screen. However, increasing aesthetics could prove to take away from the battery life, which has been a problem in previous iOS versions.

Apple device owners may also feel a sense of attachment and familiarity with the gadget's home button, which could make it difficult to cut the feature.

First off is the popularity of the home button, and how that popularity coincides with Apple's own design ethics, wrote Nace. Anecdotally speaking, most iPhone (and iPad) owners seem happy with the home button. In a way, the home button is a major part of the stability of the iOS: you push it, you feel it depress, and then you're back home.

And Apple's latest operating system leaves some believing that the next generation smartphone will sport a button-less screen.

One user posted a photo of the new home screen on iOS 5 with the caption, Expecting iPhone 5 to have no home button.

Another user tweeted, No home button? All touch?...damn, probably wishing I saved that upgrade... when referring to the iPhone 5.

A report from Planet Insane suggested a few ways Apple may replace the home button on its next device.

One way is a touch style and smooth home button located on the chassis; second is a button that is software based located on the user interface, wrote Insane Planet's Peter Parcon. The most possible one that Apple will choose is the second type.

There is no hard evidence to support whether or not the new gadget will lose its home button, but Nace said the odds are higher for the iPhone than the iPad.

However, it can be said that the iPhone 5 has a better chance of losing the home button than the iPad 3 ever did.