One of the most iconic features of the iPhones over the past decade is the home button. It has been present in pretty much every iPhone since the beginning, and it has also led to lawsuits over its design. It is so iconic that even in drawings, diagrams, cartoons, and video games, seeing a smartphone with a home button is usually associated with the iPhone.
However all of that changed with the iPhone X, Apple’s first smartphone that does not feature that home button, or at least a physical one. Speaking to TIME in an interview, Apple’s design chief Jony Ive talks about the removal of the feature, in which he basically says that he believes that this is done for the better, despite the fact that home button has been such a staple feature.
Ive was quoted as saying, “I actually think the path of holding onto features that have been effective, the path of holding onto those whatever the cost, is a path that leads to failure. And in the short term, it’s the path the feels less risky and it’s the path that feels more secure.” To replace the home button, Apple has introduced more swipes and gestures to the iPhone X.
Reviewers such as Marques Brownlee in his review of the iPhone X have noted that these gestures are probably the biggest learning curve that users will have to get used to, which we agree, but whether or not this decision will pay off for Apple in the long-run remains to be seen, and last we heard Apple could introduce 3 new iPhones in 2018 that could adopt the iPhone X’s design.
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