iOS 5.1 Could Include On-Screen Home Button For iPad 3/iPhone 5

If the teaser photo of the iPad 3 with no home button proves to be true, Apple may plan on including an on-screen home button in iOS 5.1 for both the iPad 3 and eventual iPhone 5.
If there is anything we know about Apple’s PR strategy when it comes to launching new products, it’s that the teaser photos they include in press invitations are always highly symbolic. After allowing the rumor mills to churn for months and months about features and release dates, a cryptic, coded photo always launches the speculation level to a new stratosphere the week before the official announcement.


For the iPad 3, the big question is about its home button: will it have one?

That has been the most focused-upon speculative feature change for the iPad 3 this week, along with how a home button-less iPad 3 would almost certainly foreshadow the same design decision for the iPhone 5. Concurrently, the tech media has also been contemplating the release and possible feature upgrades for iOS 5.1, which is shakily rumored to be released on March 9th, and would ostensibly ship with the new iPad 3. Rumored upgrades for iOS 5.1 include a new camera button on the lock screen, multi-lingual support for Siri, and improved security and battery-sucking performance — but you’ve already read about that stuff ad nauseam.

What no one seems to be talking about, however, is how Apple will compensate for the lack of a physical hardware home button on the iPad 3, and how iOS 5.1 might play a major role in making Apple mobile gadgets go home without their signature plurky home button.

It would stand to reason that, should Apple choose to lose the home button on the iPad 3, it will be replaced in one of three ways: a smooth, touch-style home button placed somewhere on the chassis, a software-based button on the user interface, or a new kind of gesture that will bring the user back to home. There are already several mobile devices on the market that utilize touch-style buttons on their chassis, but to be honest, they offer little more than a stylistic alternative to a hardware button that you depress. Changing the home button from the standard issue to a touch-style button wouldn’t significantly change the navigation experience on the iPad 3.

Rather, it is more plausible that iOS 5.1 will introduce a software-based navigation solution for the iPad 3 having no home button.

To this point, there have been no clues within the beta versions of iOS 5.1 that would indicate a new software-style home button. But the reason for this could simply be that Cupertino has gone out of its way to avoid tipping off analysts pouring over the new code — or that analysts missed it because they weren’t looking for it.

If iOS 5.1 turns out to replace the physical home button on the iPad 3, it would also give iPhone users a chance to get acquainted with this new type of navigation for the iPhone 5 as well.