Apple’s 2017 iPhone is shaping up to be an incredibly intriguing device. Echoing previous speculation from the rumor mill, a new report from Bloomberg relays that the iPhone 8 (Apple may skip the iPhone 7s nomenclature) will not ship with a mechanical home button.
“Apple is already at work on a major redesign of the iPhone for 2017,” the report claims. “[One] that focuses more heavily on the display by removing the Home button, according to a person familiar with the matter.”
Bloomberg doesn’t dive any deeper but previous sources have indicated that the home button on the iPhone 8 will be integrated into the display itself, will sit flush with the display, and will rest atop of a series of touch-sensitive sensors that will vibrate when pressed. In turn, the vibration will give users the illusion and sensation that the button can be depressed when it is, in fact, completely stationary. It may sound far-fetched, but Apple has already implemented a similar scheme on the trackpads used on its line of MacBooks.
