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Why the iPad and iPhone Will or Will Not Lose Its Home Button
Jason Tsay
There’s been some recent rumblings about the upcoming iPad and its Home button — or rather the lack of one. Read on as we take a look at the advantages of having a home button and also which devices we think will actually lose the button.
Multitouch Gestures
Let’s take a look at the genesis of these rumors; when Apple released the iOS 4.3 beta for developers, a toggle was discovered within the settings app, allowing the user to enable “multitouch gestures.” From there, we found out that pinching inwards with 5 fingers would zoom us back to the home screen, among other intriguing gestures for switching between apps. Supposedly, many of these gestures would “eliminate” the need for a physical home button.
When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone back in 2007, many users were worried that the simplistic one button design would be too extreme as most phones back then were covered in buttons. It now seems that one button is one too many for El Jobso. Let’s take a closer look at some advantages and disadvantages of the home button we love so dearly.
Advantages of a home button
With a physical button you get more tactility and there’s always something for you to press to get back to where you started. Although the pinch in with 5 fingers to go Home shortcut does make sense, it’s definitely not as intuitive. The button won’t change or delete anything so first time users will go ahead and just click it to see what happens. Once they realize it has one simple function — the ability to get them back to where they started — it integrates into their workflow. Not to mention that being able to designate shortcuts by pressing the Home button twice does make certain tasks run a whole lot smoother.
Goodnight Sweet PrinceDisadvantages of a home button
The home button is a button, and physical buttons are more prone to breaking and getting stuck. The home button on the iPad can also be slightly annoying when you are rotating to landscape mode, as iPad owners have more than likely experienced by now. And when it comes to the Apple mantra of “it just works”, with the Home button doing one seemingly redudant task that can be replaced by a simple iOS update, it appears to be just taking up space.
Why the iPhone 5 will NOT lose its home button
Sure, we’ve seen all the fancy swiping gestures for the iPad but what about the iPhone? Well, we’d have to think that most of those gestures would be highly complicated to perform on a 3.5” display. Although, there are also rumors of a larger Retina Display coming to the new iPhone 5. Sam Sheffer of Engadget brings up another good point — that the iPhone 5 is a single handed device. At this point, it seems that the iPad will get the gestures first and possibly the iPhone later on in the year depending on how people react to the change.
Why neither device will lose its home button
When a person walks into an Apple store and sees the iPhone or iPad, all they see is a screen with a button. By instinct they push that button and wait for what happens next. They soon identify it as the home button. Having to memorize gestures, no matter how simple they are, is not something most customers are remotely interested in. Sure, they’ll get to understand the gestures after a while but it certainly doesn’t help that most, if not all Apple products, hardly ever come with an instruction manual. Even our own Ricardo Trejo had no idea of the possibilties his first generation iPhone had back a few years ago because the lack of intructions included with the device. The single button acts as an anchor, if you will, to what’s familiar to those who aren’t totally tech savvy and who for the first time are interacting with a touch display.
What I believe Apple is doing with these gestures is preparing for the next generation. For now, the swipes are supplementary to the Home button, but once users get the hang of it, I don’t see much of a barrier for Apple if they do decide to eventually remove it.
