Chinese parts vendor TVC Mall has already started offering iPhone 5 components, namely Home buttons that can be seen in the following images. It’s not uncommon to start seeing the parts of a yet unlaunched device and yes, this has happened before, a bunch of times actually.
The buttons for the iPhone 5 are available for sale in black and white and they’re a bit different from what we’re used to. The new button seems to have a rounded square shape like the iOS app icons. However, they keep the round depression for the button, as the current version and TVC Mall mentions the differences in its description. It’s not yet clear if the average user will notice the difference, since the rounded square portion could as well be flush with the surface of the new iPhone and have the rounded portion in a depression.
There’s also the option that the rounded square portion is placed below the surface of the device and invisible to the user. It’s very likely that the mechanism will be a flush one and only show the user the standard round Home button area, like previous versions. In the meantime, know that the home buttons have also appeared on TrueSupplier and TVC Mall has a solid history of leaking parts for unlaunched iOS devices…
