Imagined appearance: This might be what the iPhone 7 looks like - but it's not out 'til September
The iPhone 7 rumour mill has been churning for some time, and one of the most persistent rumours is that Apple may drop the iconic Home button on its next device.
Now a new leak has reinforced these rumours, with supply chain sources in China telling DigiTimes that the iPhone 7 will have a touch-sensitive digital button instead of the traditional physical button.
Another Chinese website called Storm reports that the virtual home button will have the same haptic feedback motors used in the MacBook's trackpad to create the illusion of a Home button, even if it's really just a flat capacitive surface.
Apple's home button has been included on every single iPhone since the first one appeared in 2007. Many users have become accustomed to hitting it at any point to return to the homescreen.
However, many Android smartphones from the likes of Samsung, Sony, HTC and LG have soft-touch software keys are displayed as part of the operating system, letting the user go home from any menu or app.
Designers around the world have been speculating about what Apple has planned, and one artist, Marek Weidlich , has created an intriguing concept.
Weidlich has turned the entire front of the futuristic smartphone into a screen - leaving no home button or any visible bezel.
Is this what the iPhone 7 will look like without a Home button?
"I focused on simple design language which is very important for Apple," Weidlich said. "I designed a curved display without a bezel, and equipped with a software home button."
Another concept by industrial designer Herman Haidin envisions an iPhone made from a material known as "liquidmetal", which is tougher and more water-resistant than typical aluminium.
In the concept, Haidin envisions the iPhone 7 as a mere 3mm thick with a body formed of glass and liquidmetal.
In order to get to this level of thinness, the concept ditches bulky ports such as the Lightning charging port and the 3.5mm headphone jack, as well as the physical Home button.
Amazing 'liquidmetal' iPhone 7 concept shows what Apple's next-generation smartphone could look like
The reports in DigiTimes and Storm both also reinforce rumours that the iPhone 7 will be dust and waterproof. Apple is also widely rumoured to be ditching the headphone jack with the iPhone 7, and introducing a dual-lens camera.
The rumours come ahead of Apple's second quarter financial results tonight, where the company is expected to announce the first ever drop in iPhone sales.
KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has suggested that Apple may be planning to push its next major iPhone launch to 2017.
Kuo said that the iPhone 7, expected to be released in September, will lack "many attractive selling points" and could be remarkably similar to the iPhone 6 and 6S.
However, the following iPhone, released in 2017, will be completely redesigned with an all-glass enclosure and curved OLED display.
Source: Mirror UK
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