ABI Research says the next five years will see touchscreens becoming as pervasive as WiFi chipsets are in smartphones are today.
In 2006, just 7% of all smartphones had touch-sensitive screens. Last year that figure had increased to 75% - and by 2016 it’s expected to reach 97%.
The company’s new Mobile Displays and Touchscreens report points out that evolving screen and touch technologies have triggered the market’s rapid growth, with resistive touch technology being replaced by projected capacitive technology.
Kevin Burden, vice president for mobile devices at ABI Research, said “Low-cost capacitive touch controllers that use just a single layer of sensors instead of two, and save as much as 30% on the cost, are opening the market for lower-end feature phones. And eReaders, which are the most fragmented device category in both display and touch technology, now have options that not only enable finger touch, but are at a cost that could standardize the segment’s displays.”