Apple held a special event on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 7, which was iPad-centric. Tim Cook and company presented a new generation of the much more powerful iPad Pro (with the new M4 chip) and the best screen on an iPad so far, and they also presented a new generation of the iPad Air.
The company also took the opportunity to modify the catalog of available iPads and their prices, discontinuing the 9th generation iPad, which hit the market in 2021 and, until now, was its cheapest tablet available. Now him 10th generation iPad which arrived in 2022 is the lowest priced model.
But with the end of 9th generation iPad A collateral victim has also arrived: the home button has finally died, at least on the iPad.
The 9th generation iPad was the last model in Apple’s tablet catalog to include the home button, a feature that for many years was an emblematic part of the design of all the company’s mobile devices, from the iPhone to the iPod Touch.
It was in January 2010 when Steve Jobs presented the first Apple tablet, the first iPadwhich at that time seemed like a kind of giant iPhone, but that set the foundations for what would be one of the most important devices in the last 14 years for the company.
That first iPad, like the iPhone back then, included a home button at the bottom and center of the device. Back then the bezels around tablet screens were much larger than today. With the arrival of Touch ID, Apple’s fingerprint reader-based security system, the home button had its first and only evolution: in addition to functioning as a home button, It was also a fingerprint reader with haptic technology.
But as we well know, Apple began to replace this security technology with Face ID starting in iPhone X. Therefore, since 2017 we have seen how the company has removed the home button on more and more devicesto offer a larger screen, smaller bezels and Face ID as a biometric security system, although not on all devices.
Some devices, such as Latest iPad mini and the 10th generation iPad, do not have Face ID technology, although They don’t have a start button either.. What Apple has done in these cases is include a fingerprint reader with Touch ID on the side power button.
Now that the iPad 10th generation (2022) has become the most affordable iPad model, and the iPad 9th generation iPad has been discontinued, The era of the home button on the iPad has come to an end14 years after the birth of this category of devices.
However, it’s not yet the final end of the home button for Apple, at least for now.
The iPhone SEthe most economical mobile phone in the Apple catalog, still has a home button in its most recent model, which arrived in 2022. We could see the iPhone SE as the last vestige of what Apple was a few years ago, with its large bezels above and below the screen, and its home button. A design that was beautiful at the time, and that personally makes me feel very nostalgic, but then I see the iPhone 14 Pro on my desk and I remember that it is now a thing of the past. The design of the iPhone (and iPad) has evolved for the better.
Apple is expected to present a new generation of iPhone SE in September, which would say goodbye to the home button and large frames, adopting a front design similar to that of the iPhone 13. If so, it would be the final nail in the coffin of the home button on Apple devices.
Cover photo | Pedro Aznar (Applesfera)