I have used this hint when setup up my iPhones in the past as I hate excess icons on my SpringBoard. That hint doesn't seem to work any more under iOS4.x.
To be sure the addition of Folders in iOS4.x has helped reduce clutter, but I never use
Compass, Stocks, or Voice Memos and other apps that need to be present on the SpringBoard for their other functions to operate (e.g. Tomtom Carkit tool).
I stumbled across this method while editing plists trying to make a 5 icon Dock on my non-jailbroken 4.0 iPhone 3GS.
Note that this hint requires connecting your iPhone to a Windows machine, either directly or through a virtualization application such as Fusion or Parallels.
What you will need:
<key>buttonBar</key> <array> <string>com.apple.mobilephone</string> <string>com.apple.MobileSMS</string> <string>com.apple.mobilesafari</string> <string>com.apple.mobilemail</string> </array>
<key>iconLists</key> <array> <array> <string>com.apple.MobileAddressBook</string> <string>com.apple.mobiletimer</string> <string>com.apple.mobilecal</string> <string>com.apple.calculator</string> </array> <array> <string>com.apple.VoiceMemos</string> <string>com.apple.stocks</string> <string>com.apple.compass</string> <string>com.spiceloop.iemoji</string> </array> </array>
<key>buttonBar</key> <array> <string>com.apple.mobilephone</string> <string>com.apple.MobileSMS</string> <string>com.apple.mobilesafari</string> <string>com.apple.mobilemail</string> <string>com.apple.VoiceMemos</string> <-- See From Here Down <string>com.apple.stocks</string> <string>com.apple.compass</string> <string>com.spiceloop.iemoji</string> </array>
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100719201209193