The iPhone 5 craziness is crossing all levels now! The device hasn’t been out yet, and people have even started selling its spare parts! First observed by AppleBitch, home buttons of iPhone 5 are being sold by a Shenzhen-based Chinese parts supplier named TVC-Mail. These parts are for sale in both white and black colors, and are place under the category of “replacement parts for iPhone 5”. As AppleBitch notices, this alleged section of TVC-Mail.com had been empty recently.

Home buttons of current iOS devices hold a round structure, but these leaked buttons are a little different in design. Similar to the shape of application icons in iOS, the home buttons of iPhone 5 flaunt a “square shape with rounded ends”, but still maintains the round depression meant for the button (like the current iOS gadgets).

This is what TVC-Mail has written in description of these iPhone 5 home buttons:

Different from iPhone 4S 4, the iPhone 5 home button is round in the centre and square outside as the pictures show. The two parts are indivisible.

 

Front view of iPhone 5 Home Buttons, courtesy TVC-Mail.com

Rear view of iPhone 5 Home Buttons, courtesy TVC-Mail.com

And this is what the home button of iPhone 4S looks like:

Image Source: iFixit

However, it’s a little doubtful if the changes made in design will be visible to users of iPhone 5. Particularly, it is unclear if the button’s rounded square part would be visible after being protruded through the device’s surface (and slightly being pressed down), or if it would lie below the phone’s surface without being visible to users (like wings and little edges of home buttons in the present iPhone design). Well, it is more likely that the rounded square part will only hold the home button in place, and would probably be invisible to users. In this case, the users will only be able to access the standard home button (which of course is round in shape), which would be pushed through the devices surface.

Whatever the case will be, one thing is almost assured that like all iDevices, the iPhone 5 will also feature a home button. Before every iOS device’s release, rumors of Apple replacing the home button with a touch-sensitive button take rounds. But every time, they are proved to be groundless. Probably, this time wouldn’t be any different!

TVC-Mail has a record of leaking parts of iOS devices well ahead of their official launch. This incidence brings-in hints that parts of the sixth gen iPhone have started to come out from the supply chain of Apple. If the leaked parts are not fake ones, then it suggests that Apple has started ramping up iPhone 5’s production. However, sometimes, such leaks may occur way ahead of production too. We really don’t have any idea about the category in which this leak falls in!

iPhone 5 rumors have picked up steam in recent days. As we have heard, the next generation iPhone is expected to be unveiled in June  or October this year. News about iPhone 5 prototype being tested has also been taking rounds lately. Rumors also say that the sixth generation iPhone is coming with 4G LTE capability and a larger screen display. According to sources, it will be featuring a back cover made up of liquidmetal (instead of glass), and would use in-cell touch technology for the display. Use of this technology would reduce the handset’s thickness up to 15%.

UPDATE:- These parts have appeared for sale in both white and black colors at TrueSupplier also. Images present there reveal that the rounded square part is meant to keep the home button fixed at its place, and as it would be positioned behind the front portion of the gadget, the rounded square will remain invisible to the users of the handset.

Source : TrueSupplier

The listing shows that one button unit is available for $8.99. It’s funny… Buttons have already gone out of stock!