Touchscreen phone sales to grow 100pc in 2010

By 2013, touchscreen mobile devices will account for 58pc of all mobile device sales worldwide and more than 80pc in developed markets such as North America and Western Europe.

Mid-range phones go touchscreen
“Touchscreens are no longer the preserve of high-end devices and are now being included in many mid-range phones as more companies have been driving the consumer market for affordable touchscreen phones,” said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.

“As phone capabilities increase, consumers are becoming much more aware of the benefits of touch interfaces, and vendors are responding.”

With mobile phone vendors now focused on integrating touch technologies, many are now going a step further and beginning to deliver user interfaces (UIs) that are truly optimised for touch input.

They are also increasing their software skills to deliver deeper integration of touch UIs with the underlying platform, rather than software overlays.

iPhone success drive touchscreen
Cozza said that the success of the iPhone has shown the viability of capacitive touch technology in mobile phones, which enables more-natural, responsive and intuitive gestures.

Gartner predicts that capacitive and resistive touchscreens will coexist in the short term in mobile phones. Capacitive touch will be the mainstream technology; however, resistive touchscreens will still be around because of its lower cost.

“As we saw at Mobile World Congress touch interface technology will continue to be one of the key areas of innovation during 2010,” Cozza continued.

“Vendor and industry focus on touch UI will bring increasing sophistication and spur adoption of touch UI in other consumer electronics devices.”

However, vendors need to concentrate on delivering an experience rather than just a product.

Touch not be all and end all
“Consumers won't buy a mobile device purely for the touch UI,2 said CK Lu, research analyst at Gartner. Touch technology is just an enabler, and ultimately, it is a compelling user experience — which includes good UI design, applications and services — that will make or break a product."

Lu advised vendors to invest in expanding their UI design capabilities and ensure that designs for touch-driven UIs integrate closely with the underlying device software, allowing for an uninterrupted experience.

He also said that vendors should consider integrating touch with other form factors, such as numeric or QWERTY keypads, because touch UI cannot fulfill all kinds of operations.

Regional sales perspective
From a sales volume perspective, Asia/Pacific is the leading region for touchscreen mobile devices. In 2010, touchscreen mobile device sales in Asia/Pacific are projected to surpass 129.1 million units, accounting for 35.6pc of the global market.

By comparison, Western Europe and North America are expected to account for 26.8pc and 24.4pc of global touchscreen mobile device sales.

Looking at penetration of touch devices as part of overall sales in their regions, however, Western Europe leads the way with 49pc, followed by North America at 46.65pc. Due to the much larger size of the overall market, touchscreen sales will account for just 23.4pc of total mobile device sales in Asia/Pacific. 

“The Asia/Pacific region adapted touch very early since handwriting is great for Chinese input,” Lu said.

“Looking at worldwide performance, touch technology is mainly driven by high end smartphones and feature phones. However, in Asia, thepcage of smartphones are relatively low compared to their sales in Western Europe and the U.S.

“Although the touch experience is generally welcome by users, price remains an inhibitor for wide adoption of touch phones, particularly in emerging markets.”

Pictured – the Samsung Wave touchscreen smartphone, one of the touchscreen devices that will dominate in 2010

Article courtesy of siliconrepublic.com