Touch-Screen Sales to Double by 2012
The impending release of iPhone has put touch screens into the spotlight, but the demand for this technology was already growing rapidly even before Apple joined the party, according to iSuppli. Global shipment revenue for the leading touch-screen technologies will rise to $4.4 billion by 2012, up from $2.4 billion in 2006, iSuppli predicts.
"Demand for touch-screen displays is being driven primarily by the mobile-phone and consumer-electronics industries - specifically portable game consoles, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and Portable Navigation Devices (PNDs)," said Jennifer Colegrove, senior analyst, display technology and strategy for iSuppli. "However, as the market matures, iSuppli believes touch-screen displays will find a role in nearly every aspect of electronics life, from planes, to automobiles, to machine-control systems, to home appliances."
Count the technologies
The eight leading technologies are resistive, surface capacitive, projected capacitive, infrared, Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW), optical, bending wave and active digitizer. Along with these, there are eight other emerging touch-screen technologies, including photo sensor in pixel, polymer waveguide, distributed light, strain gauge, multi-touch, dual-force touch, laser-point activated touch and 3D touch.
Resistive is not futile
The resistive touch-screen market comprises more than two-thirds of the more than 100 manufacturers of touch- screen components. Because of the wide competitive field, this market is currently in the midst of a price war, with Average Selling Prices (ASPs) expected to plummet 10 percent annually for the next five years, according to iSuppli.
With profits diminishing, iSuppli predicts there will be a number of mergers and acquisitions in the very near future. Resistive products are the most affordable and most common type of touch-screen technology. They use a controller on Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO)-coated glass or plastic film overlay on the display face to produce the touch connection.
The advantages of resistive touch-screen displays include low price, high resolution, mouse tracking, small-target activation and the fact that they are not affected by dirt, dust, water or light. Unfortunately, the image clarity of resistive touch screens leaves much to be desired. Furthermore, such displays are very brittle upon impact with any large or sharp object, making their durability an issue.
Despite these drawbacks, the resistive touch-screen market still will experience major growth in terms of unit shipments. However, revenue won't see much growth as other technologies eat into the resistive business. This market will still reach $1.67 billion by 2012, rising at a CAGR of 3.1 percent from $1.39 billion in 2006.
Multi-touch madness
Most touch-screen displays are designed for a single touch, meaning they can only register one point of contact at a time. If two or more touches occur simultaneously, most touch screens will register either the latest touch point or an area in between. Multi-touch screens are defined as displays that can respond to multiple touches simultaneously and can be integrated with optical imaging technologies, including resistive, surface capacitive and projected capacitive.
Multi-touch is emerging as a popular option thanks to Apple's upcoming iPhone and new designs such as Microsoft's concept tabletop computer.
One bottleneck to this technology may lie with Apple, which owns one of the multi-touch screen patents. It's unclear whether Apple will be willing to accept royalty payments in exchange for use of the technology. However, this is only one patent and does not apply to all multi-touch screen technologies.
iSuppli believes that the applications most suitable for multi-touch screen displays are new handheld video-game systems, map browsing systems and-of course-new mobile handsets that have a variety of additional applications beyond voice communications, i.e. Apple's iPhone. The market for multi-touch touch screens is set to grow to $433.1 million in 2012, rising at a CAGR of 30.8 percent from $112.9 million in 2007."
Posted to the site on 20th June 2007