AUSTIN, USA: The touch panel market is on track to grow to $3.3 billion and 660 million units by 2015. This projection is among the findings in the Touch Panel Market Analysis, a new report available from DisplaySearch, the leading provider of market intelligence on displays and related technology.

Unlike previous industry studies, the comprehensive DisplaySearch report covers the entire touch panel market and is based on actual supplier surveys. The report includes all of the available technologies, applications, and suppliers within a market reinvigorated by last year’s launch of the Apple iPhone.

“The iPhone demonstrated how multi-touch technology is enabling a new generation of user interfaces,” explains Chris Crotty, Director of Small and Medium Displays Research at DisplaySearch. Crotty adds, “High volume mobile phone shipments will drive down the cost of touch technology and thereby enable it to spread more rapidly into other devices such as portable media players, digital cameras and others.”

In a market historically dominated by so-called resistive touch technology, Apple’s iPhone uses a different technology called projected capacitance that enabled the multi-touch functionality that had been lacking in resistive-based touch panels. Projected capacitance is one of about a dozen technologies vying for market dominance. Each technology has advantages and drawbacks.

Some, like resistive touch technology, have been available for many years while others, like digital waveguide, are relative newcomers improving on previous generations. Key display suppliers, like Sharp and TMDisplay, are scrambling to develop so-called in-cell optical touch technology that embeds photo sensors directly into LCDs.

By integrating the touch function directly into an LCD, display suppliers hope to capture a larger share of available revenue. Currently, touch panels feature separate panels or sensors placed on top of or around the actual display.