Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Battle between the Display Makers and the Touch-Module Makers Intensifies

Bob Mackey, Principal Scientist at Synaptics, highlighted the Huawei Ascend P2 smartphone as one of the newest examples of in-cell touch during his Monday Seminar M8 (“Touch + Display, Any Way You Want It”). The Ascend P2 uses a 4.7-inch, 1280 x 720 (HD) LCD with 315 pixels per inch. “In-cell” was used by Bob as a generic term to describe touch integrated into a display and supplied by the display maker rather than a touch-module maker. As Bob explained, the actual construction of the touch screen in this case should more accurately be described as “hybrid in-cell/on-cell”, where the touchscreen’s drive electrodes are integrated into the IPS display’s TFT array and the touchscreen’s sense electrodes are placed on top of the color filter glass – i.e., outside of the LCD cell.


Photo source: www.digitaltrends.com

The thickness of the Ascend P2 smartphone is 8.4 mm (0.33 inches); this is slightly thicker than the Samsung Galaxy S4 at 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) and the Apple iPhone 5 at 7.6 mm (0.30 inches). Note that in consumer terms rather than display-engineer terms, we’re talking about differences of hundredths of an inch here – not a heck of a lot. The iPhone 5 uses “true” in-cell (both touchscreen electrodes are in the TFT array; the Galaxy S4 uses on-cell (both touchscreen electrodes are on top of the OLED encapsulation glass). The difference in thickness between any of these touch configurations supplied by a display maker versus the latest touch configuration supplied by a touch-module maker (touch on the underside of the cover-glass, known as OGS or “one glass solution”) is only around 100 microns (0.1 mm). Bob said during his seminar that “Some [smartphone] OEMs would sell their mother for 100 microns [reduction in product thickness].” In reality, 0.1 mm is a small portion of the difference in thickness between the Ascend P2 and the iPhone-5. The real battle isn’t about the thickness of the touch-display; it’s about who supplies the touch functionality.

According to DisplaySearch, the total revenue produced by touch-module makers in 2007 was $1.3 billion while in 2013 it will be $21.4 billion. The size of the touch market has become significant relative to the ~$100B display market, so the display-makers want a piece of the action. That’s the real driving force in in-cell, not technology or thickness. There’s beginning to be a strong possibility that over the next five years, the display industry will become the preferred touch-supplier for most high-volume consumer-electronics devices. Again using DisplaySearch numbers, revenue for mobile phones and tablets alone will account for 74% of the total touch market in 2018. If the display industry were to take all of that revenue, the touch-module industry would shrink to less than 40% of its current size. The battle is just beginning. –Geoff Walker

2 comments:

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  2. I was amazed how touch screen technology entered the local business market. The blog showed the revenue gained when touch screen was introduced to the public. The demand of touch devices was high and still growing higher. A touch device has positive implications on a consumer that’s why the consumption was terribly high. One of these technologies is the projected capacitive touchscreen. I learned on this blog it was not only the leading touch technology but also can be considered a fast growing one. That sounds positive! Many suppliers will be attracted to invest on this technology for the demand are growing and growing higher. The application of this technology to mobile phones is a big catch. Majority of individual today owns at least one mobile phone. Mobile phones were useful to man on day to day basis. Soon be a need maybe. Touch technology will soon rule the market on the diversity of its technology.

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