The iPhone 8’s signature design feature will be a bezeless display extending from edge to edge. That means there’s no room for a physical home button on the device, so Apple has to “kill” it. However, more reports indicate the iPhone maker may not be able to do so this year.
Technically, Apple already killed the physical home button with the iPhone 7 series. These devices do not have a home button that you can actually press. Furthermore, the iPhone 6s introduced the 3D Touch screen that theoretically allows Apple to relegate several home button functions to any region of the display.
If this is true, this is a very big problem. If Apple has waited this long to ensure that a key feature is going to work, then the company is in bad shape. Putting the home button on the back of the iPhone would be an admission of defeat, and it would be stupid. While no one minds using a cheap Android phone without a case, using an expensive iPhone without a case is risky. Or would we have to have cases with holes in them?
This may be just a rumor, and, in fact, one planted by Apple, so you never know…
Source: Apple is having trouble getting the iPhone 8’s signature feature to actually work — BGR