TVC-Mall – a Chinese part supplier has put up the purported next generation iPhone Home button for sale in both black and white color on their website.

Interestingly, the purported “iPhone 5” Home button seems to be little different from the one used by Apple in the iPhones that have been launched so far.

As MacRumors points out, the purported “iPhone 5” Home button does retain the round depression but the part is square in shape with rounded edges, where as iPhone 4S’ Home button part is round in shape.

Eric Slivka of MacRumors speculates:

It is, however, unclear from the product images whether the design change will be noticeable to users. Specifically, it is not clear whether the rounded square portion of the button would be flush with the surface of the device with the round portion depressed slightly or if the rounded square portion might simply be below the surface of the device and invisible to the user as with the small edges and “wings” of the current iPhone home button design. […]

[..] The home buttons are also listed for sale in both black and white at TrueSupplier, and images posted there more clearly show that the rounded square will lie behind the front of the device and serve to hold the home button in place. 

“iPhone 5” Home buttons via TVC-Mall

Backside of “iPhone 5” Home buttons via TVC-Mall

iPhone 4S Home button

“iPhone 5” Home button via True Supplier

There have been some rumors that Apple will replace the Home button with a capacitive touch-sentive Home button to reduce the wear and tear, but this leaked part seems to suggest that Apple is unlikely to make such a radical change.

According to recent rumors, the next iPhone will be coming in fall 2012, which will feature the same 3.5-inch screen or very close to it, support 4G LTE networks and come with  a new micro dock connector.

While we’re on the top of Home buttons check out how to recalibrate your iPhone’s unresponsive Home Button.