Steve Jobs’ original plan for the iPhone was to have no physical buttons at all. The design ended up compromising with the physical volume and mute buttons and of course, the home button. Now it looks like Apple is making moves to bring the iPhone closer to Jobs’ initial vision. Boy Genius Report, who is normally pretty accurate about stuff like this, has received a tip from a source that the physical home button may go away ‘at some point in time’.

This tip is supported somewhat by the fact that iOS 4.3 has added new multitouch gestures to the iPad that allow you to pinch to reveal the home screen, swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar and swipe sideways to switch between apps. The four-finger gestures are totally new and would seem to be designed to get you to rely on the home button less. The gestures are supposedly supposed to make their way to the iPhone as well, which would also lose it’s physical home button.

BGR’s source says that Apple employees are already testing the buttonless iPhones and iPads on the Cupertino campus and that the home-buttonless devices could arrive as soon as the models set to drop this year.

As an additional tidbit, the source also stated that we might see Mac apps like Photo Booth, iPhoto, Garage Band and other apps from the iLife suite appear on the iPad as soon as the approximately April-ish release of the iPad 2.

BGR