I think these rumors are coming out of CES. One of the big features of honeycomb is that it is designed to be button-less. Many of the new Android tablets (and the RIM Playbook) have no buttons on the front, just volume and power (some of them have a hidden power button!).
So, whether or not Apple does this, the reason people are talking about it (I think) is because it's become such a staple of many of the tablets at CES. So you couple that, with the fact that Apple has included the same software ability as Android, 2+2=4.
I don't know that it will happen though. The home button isn't particularly ugly, it's not obtrusive, doesn't get in your way. If you chose to use gestures alone, you won't really feel encumbered by the still-existing home button.
However, Apple does love to keep their devices "clean". A macbook is the only notebook your gonna find that doesn't have tons of blinking lights, and a multitude of "shortcut buttons", it's sleek, a keyboard and a power button! The charging LED is on the magsafe connector. And for as long as I can remember the power button on the majority of Macintosh computers are on the keyboard, they are on the device too, but usually on the back of the device, only intended to be used should the system crash (I had a performa once with a power button in the back that took way too much effort to push, lol, but the keyboard turns her on and off!). That's changed, because of bluetooth keyboards, but still, it's Apples style.
-John
