The design of the iPhone has traditionally been very simple and straightforward, and that’s one of the reasons people keep getting drawn to the devices. Apple have made various refinements to the finer details over time, but the main idea stays the same. And of course, if it works, there’s no reason to change anything – as long as the design of the device keeps it popular on the market and is well received by its users.
But now, it looks like Apple are preparing for a somewhat major revision to the physical design of the iPhone. According to a rumor, the iPhone 7 could be the last device in the line to feature the Home button that we all know from the previous phones. At least, it’s not going to have a physical button there – the rumor claims that the company is looking into a revision of their design which will eliminate the need for the button.
However, the change is still far off and won’t be ready in time for the release of the iPhone 7 or iPhone 6S, and will instead be added to the next devices in the line. We don’t know what the implications are for the iPhone 6C, but it’s very likely that this device is also going to have a physical home button.
The change shouldn’t be that difficult to implement on the hardware side, but it will require some clever thinking for the operating system – it’s the kind of change that can have a large impact on the user experience, and Apple must be careful to ensure that people will not be confused by the way the new interface works.
On the other hand, it could make the devices significantly better in the long run, by allowing Apple to make phones with a larger screen, or keep the same screen size but reduce the phone’s overall physical dimensions. In both cases, it would be of benefit to the user of course.
There are some potential issues with that, which Apple will have to find a way to deal with. For example, if they want to keep the fingerprint sensor capabilities of the device, that would require some re-engineering. There has been an interesting rumor about the development of fingerprint sensing capabilities built directly into the touchscreen of the device, but we don’t know if that’s really being worked on, nor when it’s going to be ready for the market. It should be a good feature to have though, and can improve the design of some smartphones in the future.