14 DAY TRIAL // Some areas of the IT market may be going through a rough time, but that doesn't mean others can't be reveling in their wins, as proven by what has been happening, and will happen on the touchscreen segment.
When the IT market stills and no new products appear, or the number of new releases is low, market watchers end up surveying the financial aspects of each product type.
Granted, even if the attention to this area wasn't enhanced by such conditions, it is unlikely that people would have failed to notice the troubles on the DRAM segment, among other things.
Fortunately, there are still certain areas of the IT industry where sales are strong as factors come together to buoy demand.
The touch panel market is one of these layers, particularly the part made up of small to medium panels.
As end-users know, new mobile devices show up practically every day, most of which have support for touch or multi-touch input.
These different tablets, smartphone or other CE models are, in turns, sold in the thousands or more, meaning that touchscreen makers get to very large orders.
As such, reports saying that touchscreen sales will increase during the newly started third quarter of 2011 are hardly a shocking development.
Cited industry sources, as they are called, claim that large-size panel makers have been placing lower orders than expected, unlike with smaller panels.
This caused firms that produce touch panels, as well as makers of sensors and modules, to start shifting production lines to accommodate the changed order levels.
There is now a lower output of components for LCD TVs and monitors, while components for tablets and smartphones are being manufactured in higher volumes.
As for Q4 and later years, the performance of such products from Apple, HP, ASUS, Acer, Amazon, Samsung, Lenovo and any other notebook or consumer electronics maker will determine what happens.