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Elongated Gesture iPhone 5 Home Button Contradicts Apple Patents

A new, purported photo of iPhone 5 screen production at the Wintek facility reveals new iPhone screens with elongated, ovular cutouts for a possible multi-touch, multi-gesture home button. But Apple patents over the past few years show the desire to move away from the home button altogether.  
In the midst of a filed of very blurry, nondescript photos, complete with dithery, photoshopped wierdness, a set of remarkably clear, crisp photos of workers in what is purported to be Wintek’s iPhone touchscreen factory reveal sheets of what look to be larger-than-normal iPhone screens — complete with elongated cutouts for a possible multi-touch, multi-gesture home button.
Leading the way as usual on iPhone 5 rumordom is 9to5Mac, who, along with others, captioned the photo with “note the elongated gesture home button.”
The notion of an iPhone 5 with an multi-touch home button is not a completely never revelation to the rumor mill. Ever since the release of the iPhone 4, tech pundits have imagined Apple outfitting future iPhone iterations with either a multi-touch home button or a smart bezel, which would give users gestural control over functions like volume, app switching, and unlocking that currently are either relegated to hardware controls or altogether nonexistent on the iPhone device itself. Along with these rumors have also been the discussion of the iconic home button disappearing from the iPhone 5.
While there may be some excitement over the prospect of Apple revealing a multi-gestural home button on the iPhone 5, the Apple patents suggest that it is highly unlikely.
When researching Apple-related patent sites like Patently Apple, it becomes “patently” obvious that Apple’s long term direction for the iPhone when it comes to gesture and controls is to lose the home button and all other manual buttons and hardware for a next-generation smartphone that makes use of even more complex and nuanced gestures to control navigation. Aside from Apple’s landmark patent for the original home button, you’ll be hard-pressed to find patents that suggest the kind of elongated home button we’re seeing suggested in these new photos.
On the other hand, there are a slew of Apple patents filed in 2010 that suggest Apple has plans to introduce hidden controls and drop the physical home button in an attempt to create a sleek, button touch surface.
This story from SlashGear reveals a patent with no home button whatsoever. And along these same lines, Patently Apple produced a wonderful piece on Apple’s recent smart bezel patents and their viability on future iPhones.
In this way, it is safe to say that there is more likelihood of seeing smart bezels, hidden controls, and no home button in the iPhone’s future, rather than a multi-touch home button on the iPhone 5. And if it does come to pass that these new photos are accurate and the iPhone 5 will indeed feature a gestural home button, it would seem to contradict what Cupertino has been developing over the past couple years in terms of next-generation controls and navigation for the iPhone.