IHS: Touch Controller IC Shipments To Surge Until 2015

Shipments of touch controller integrated circuits are expected to surge in future years, as the market for touch screen displays in devices like Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPhone and iPad continues to grow, industry researcher IHS Inc. (IHS) said.

Shipments of the circuits should reach 2.4 billion units in 2015, up from 865 million in 2010, IHS said. This year alone, shipments are expected to soar 28% to 1.7 billion units, though the rate of expansion is expected to slow starting in 2015.

Since Apple almost single-handedly ignited the market for touch in 2007 with the iPhone, IHS said, touch technology has branched out from mobile handsets to a variety of consumer electronics, such as tablets, e-readers, flat-panel TVs and portable media players.

Together, the number of devices and appliances using some form of touch controller integrated circuits is predicted to hit 1.06 billion units this year, nearly double from 514.9 million units only two years ago, IHS said. More shipments of the circuits are expected than of touch-screen equipment since many products use more than one of the circuits.

The leaders of the touch controller space last year were Atmel Corp. (ATML), Cypress Semiconductor Corp. (CY) and Synaptics Inc. (SYNA), though they face mounting competition in the fast-growing industry, especially from Asian suppliers such as Novatek Microelectronics Corp. (3034.TW) and Himax Technologies Inc. (HIMX).

But while unit shipments of discrete touch controller ICs will continue to grow this year and beyond, revenue growth is expected to be more limited, IHS said, due in part to a decline in average selling prices and the falling number of touch ICs being employed per panel in medium-sized applications.

 
   -By Ben Fox Rubin, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-3108; [e-mail]