Taipei, May 26, 2010 (CENS)--Total touch screen shipments increased 29% year-on-year (YoY) in 2009, to 606 million units, according to DisplaySearch, a major player in display market research and consulting.

Jennifer Colegrove, Director of Display Technologies at DisplaySearch, pointed out that touch screen penetration has been rapidly increasing in cellphone, PMP/MP3, portable navigation, and other applications. Over the next several years, she added, touch screens would undergo strong growth in large-size applications such as all-in-one PCs, mini-note/slate PCs, and education/training.

Projected capacitive touch has been popularized by Apple`s iPhone and iPod Touch since 2007, and with the iPad adopting it in 2010, DisplaySearch forecasted that projected capacitive would pass resistive touch technology to become the leading touch technology in 2010, measured by revenues.

The touch screen industry is extremely diverse, the company said, with many companies pursuing several different technologies. There are over a dozen touch-screen technologies. Resistive is still the leading technology in terms of unit shipments, and 90 companies are manufacturing it in 2010. However, projected capacitive technology has attracted numerous suppliers, 56 companies are supplying projected capacitive in 2010, which is nearly twice as many as last year`s 27 suppliers.

According to DisplaySearch, cellphones are the biggest application for touch screens in terms of unit shipments. There were 376 million touch screens shipped for cellphone applications in 2009, which is 25.6% penetration of the overall market.

In-cell touch was commercialized for the first time in May 2009, with high growth and penetration into large size expected in 2010. On-cell projected capacitive touch was also commercialized in May 2009. However, yield rates need to be closely watched to control the cost.

The market-research firm added that year 2010 would be the first time that projected capacitive touch technology surpasses resistive in market size; while other new touch technologies will be commercialized and see higher penetration, such as on-cell and some combination-type touch panels.

(by Quincy Liang)