Have Apple actually admitted home button failures are known issue iPhone 4

I have never met anyone with a home button issue.

Most never have an issue.

Not sure what kind of admission you want. 

Like any product some do fail.  If they fail within the warranty period, they replace the iphone.

Wait, so you want apple to release an application to replace the home button, but don't want to use Assistive Touch as a currently provided alternative?

What does the Home Button do that Assistive Touch does not? Tap the Home Button icon once and it goes back to home screen or to Spotlight Search, tap it twice and it opens up your Mutli-Tasking bar, tap it three times and -if you have the behavior enabled- it will give you the option of what you want to be activated.

To follow on with roaminggnome, I have yet to experience any sort of Home Button issue with either my iPhone or my iPad, and plenty of the people I work with have iPhones and have never had the issue

Home button failures are not a "known issue", nor a common issue. Things break, including iPhones. When they do you get them fixed under warranty for the first year (or 2 if you have Applecare) or pay a repair fee. I've had 4 iPhones and none of them have ever had any hardware problems. This is what a "common issue" looks like:

Hi, I don't really want an app to replace the home button. I want apple to admit there is a weakness with the home button design and replace faulty units free of charge. An app would be an improvement... But not the answer.

I am amazed you have not seen a home button failure. Are you in the uk? Everyone I know has or is waiting for the dreaded lack of response from the button.

We were going to roll out these devices to all our staff until this issue appeared, now they have blackberrys. Never mind! maybe the iPhone 5 will not have any physical buttons, they don't need too.

Don t get me wrong, I think apples products are amazing but to fail on such a small detail that is so central to its function is disappointing to say the least.

Anyway thanks for responding.

I had this problem on my iPhone 4 when it was abouta  year old. Took a firm presses to get it to do anything. I ended up selling it on a website and never heard a complaint about the button from the buyer.

I read several threads about this home button problem on Macrumors so it was a real problem but it may nt be as big of a problem as it sounds. Never heard of it happening on the 4S.