A Vibrating Home button just wastes battery.

[TheRealAlex]

So the Home button is now. Just a solid non moveable piece Why exactly ?

No one knows. I have my speculation which I will post below. We do know one thing for sure that the need of the Home Button to constantly Draw power and vibrate will mean 2 things For sure. It will drain battery for no reason when they could have kept a standard home button.

And secondly it will lead to failure or problems with. The Taptic Engine which saw limited use with 3D Touch now it's gonna be needed all time imagine how much we use the home button.

Why ? It's is my theory that in order for the iPhone to Achiveve the necessary space the accommodate a Larger Display for the iPhone Pro next year Apple plans to completely do away with the Home Button making it rigid was just the first step to slowly have people get use to not having a physical button.

This Apple Patent itself shows their plans to eliminate the Home Button totally and have the Screen itself be the Fingerprint sensor.

http://fortune.com/2016/05/18/apple-touch-id-patent/

 

[Lobwedgephil]

I would argue the lack of the physical button will lead to less failures, as you no longer will have the home button going bad like in the past. The phones have longer battery life, so I don't see how it is going to drain the battery at all.

 

[penajmz]

Also for more water resistance.

 

[0007776]

I don't see it having much effect either way on battery life or failure rates, the draw will be so little that you won't notice it, and plenty of people had issues with the home buttons failing before.