[ugh]

You are looking at it wrong. Also: You are wrong.

The iPad already supports gestures. Three gestures replace all you need the home button for (one or two small and insignificant exceptions, but those would be easy enough to add).

Those gestures already declutter the interaction considerably. They make for a much smoother experience than that clusterfuck which is the home button.

It’s a nice fallback, so I’m not sure whether it’s a good idea to remove it, but I haven’t touched it in ages (it’s always not where I expect it to be, anyway).

[ddagradi]

Part of the iPad's experience, and part of its success, is that it shares a common language with the iPhone. Removing the home button removes part of the easy transition from one device to the other. If an iPhone owner is thinking of buying a home-button-less iPad, they'll launch an app, and then stare in confusion trying to figure out how to leave it again. Eventually someone will come and explain to them that if you pinch your fingers this certain way, it will take you back to the home screen. And the experience is lessened.

I love the system Apple is building. The gestures built into iOS 5 make it faster and easier for me to use everyday. But gestures are like keyboard shortcuts - they require instruction and they're not discoverable. I think having a so-called "Panic" button exist on the device is important for the way it functions for consumers (not to mention integral to Siri's interface if that makes its way to the iPad). Will it be a physical button? Maybe, maybe not. Removing the only physical button on the device requires a more fundamental change than "three gestures replace all you need the home button for" though.

[Raphael]

The iPad and iPhone are closely related. If one drops the home button, then likely the other will follow shortly.

[ugh]

Nah, the gestures work amazingly well on an iPad, but not at all on the iPhone. It's too small.