Touch Screen Market to Hit $9B by 2015

(MoneyWatch)  It is probably obvious to say that the touch screen market is growing, given Apple's success, Microsoft's Windows support for the devices, and various device and PC manufacturers like HP either having rolled out products or planning them. But market analyst firm DisplaySearch has a forecast suggesting a market size of $9 billion by 2015.

Apparently there are over 170 vendors who sell touch screen modules, integrated circuits, films, and other technologies. There are also a dozen different touch screen technologies, suggesting that there's going to be some major consolidation in the future. The table below shows the number of companies involved in various technologies (with some companies involved in more than one area):

Here are some points of DisplaySearch's 2009 Touch Panel Market Analysis:

• Apple's products have driven increased use of capacitive products, becoming the second biggest touch technology behind resistive. The capacitive technologies are now available in single layer or film and can cover sizes greater than 100 inches.
• Multi-touch is getting bigger -- no surprise there, given the iPhone's popularity, and Windows 7 will also support multi-touch. There are 50 suppliers that provide multi-touch screens, and that number is likely to rise.
• The biggest application of touch screens in unit shipments has been -- mobile phones. However, it's not all Apple. In 2008, 220 million touch screens shipped for phones, giving the technology a 16 percent market penetration. DisplaySearch thinks this will go to almost 50 percent by 2015.