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Taiwan Touch-panel Suppliers Focus on Value-chain, Expand Manufacturing Capacity: DisplaySearch

2011/03/22 | By Quincy Liang

Taipei, March 22, 2011 (CENS)--Global shipments of touch screens for tablet (or slate) PCs are forecast to reach 60 million units in 2011, according to the DisplaySearch.

The major display-market research firm said that Apple would likely continue to account for the majority of tablet PC touch screens in 2011 and 2012, yet other brands could catch up in 2012 and beyond. DisplaySearch forecast total touch panels for tablet PCs to reach 260 million units in 2016, up 333% from 2011.

Jennifer Colegrove, vice president of emerging display technologies for DisplaySearch, pointed out that tablet PCs are the fastest growing application for touch screens, while most tablet PC products would leverage multi-touch projected capacitive technology, following Apple's lead. At the same time, a small amount of tablet PCs are using resistive touch, since it is less expense and enables handwriting recognition.\

DisplaySearch pointed out that touch-screen supply chain is evolving differently in each region, based on variations in touch screen technologies and customer needs. Taiwan suppliers are focusing on the overall value chain while expanding manufacturing capacity for touch panels. Following their success in cellphones, Taiwanese suppliers are planning to achieve the same success with tablet PCs.

More than 10 different structures are currently in use for projected capacitive touch screens. This is due to the different intellectual property (IP) and manufacturing strengths and weakness of each supplier.

AU Optronics Corp. (AUO), the top-two maker of thin film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels in Taiwan, has achieved yield rates of more than 80% for on-cell touch in small/medium size displays, and has begun shipping digital camera, portable navigation devices (PND), and cellphone applications, the research firm said.

In addition, HP unveiled the first touch-screen all-in-one (AIO) PC to feature a 60-dgree reclining display, enabling users to adjust the display's position for a comfortable experience. Apple applied for a patent in 2010 with a similar solution. This type of ergonomic solution are expected to boost touch adoption for AIO PCs in the future, DisplaySearch's findings showed.