The smartphone has become a cultural icon in modern society. Almost everyone in the United States owns a smartphone. According to Statista, in 2018, Apple’s net income was nearly 60 billion dollars. Most of the income is likely from the sale of iPhones. 

In a survey of 11 people at Horizon Honors Secondary School, 8 of them had an iPhone. Of those who own an iPhone, every single one of them has the iPhone 8 or earlier. This is interesting because the iPhone 8 was the last iPhone to have the home button in the bottom-middle of the screen. The iPhone X or later, however, removed this button in exchange for a swipe-up system to close apps. All of the people who said they had iPhones said they had an unfavorable opinion of the swipe-up feature. A common reason for this unfavorable opinion is that the home button is easier to use and has been implemented for so long that people do not like this change. But, there are some other reasons for people not like the removal of the home button.

“I would be opposed to the removal of the home button because it adds such a small space to the screen, it seems unnecessary. The home button is easy to use and wouldn’t cause the screen to be smudged from constantly swiping up.” 

“If your screen is not working or the bottom isn’t at least, then you can’t get to your home screen very easily. It’s inconvenient. Plus people didn’t want them to remove the home button, they wanted them to remove the notch on top.” 

“There’s no outer blank part around the home button to hold the phone with, so you have to hold it by the edges.”

According to Apple Explained, not only does getting rid of the home button increase the amount of space that the screen takes up, but it also removes something called the Taptic Engine that causes the button to vibrate to simulate that you are pushing the button when in reality the button does not move. This frees up quite a lot of space on the inside of the iPhone. This is the same reason Apple made the controversial move to remove the audio jack, forcing you to use Bluetooth or to plug your headphones into the charge port.

Another question people were asked on the survey was if they thought buying the newest iPhone was a waste of money. Surprisingly, only 7 of the 11 people surveyed said that buying the latest iPhone is a waste of money. Several people said that there is usually not much improvement besides a faster processor (which is not really necessary for a phone), a better camera, and will continue to be updated for longer. Another thing to consider is that if you really want the newest phone, just wait a couple of years to buy it, then the price will be a lot lower.

In the end, Apple is probably not going to change back to the home button because as long as people are still buying their phones, they don’t need to change anything. If you want to buy the newest iPhone, maybe consider waiting a few years until the next few iPhones come out and the one you want is a lot cheaper.

(Editor’s Note: responses edited for clarity)