Jul 13, 2011 11:27 GMT  ·  By

As more and more electronics adopt touch-based input, sales of such panels can only grow, an assumption that is more than corroborated by market analysts versed in the workings of this particular field.

DisplaySearch is a firm that makes it a point to always stay well informed in regards to the situation on the display industry.

In other words, it monitors trends and, based on market analysis, is able to put together financial reports and forecasts.

In this particular instance, it is a subsection of the display industry that has fallen under scrutiny, that of touch panels.

Apparently, when putting together all the different touch technologies, the number of panels set to be sold in 2011 is almost doule compared to that of 2010.

Total revenues should reach $13.4 billion by the end of the year, while the sum should end up rising all the way up to $24 billion by 2017. Overall, revenues will be about 90% better over those of 2010.

Capacitive panels will become more and more prominent, at the expense of resistive ones, and though mobile phones will be the main driving force for a while, tablets are already gaining on them.

Hot on their heels are consumer gaming consoles, notebooks, all-in-one PCs, automobile monitors.

Finally, high transmittance, low power consumption and multi-touch or gesture recognition will end up as the main determining factor in each solution's success.

"Touch screen penetration has rapidly increased in mobile phones, handheld games, game consoles, and tablet PC applications, which collectively will account for more than $10.5 billion in touch screen revenues this year," noted Jennifer Colegrove, PhD, Vice President of Emerging Display Technologies at DisplaySearch.

"In addition, we see strong touch screen growth over the next several years driven by demand in larger display applications such as all-in-one PCs, notebook PCs, and consumer gaming."