iPhone Drives Touchscreens

The as yet unreleased iPhone will be instrumental to the touchscreen market in 2007, according to the Taiwan-based Topology Research Institute. The study claims that Apple's device will help make the touch-sensitive panels an increasingly popular choice with other cellphone makers, many of whom still rely on physically driven controls. The California company's influence should help boost the total business to as much as $2.7 billion, TRI says, though the institution didn't indicate what percentage of the business would be controlled by the 3.5-inch widescreen central to the iPhone.

Touchscreens have been a staple of some smartphones, including Palm handsets such as the Treo 755p, but has only recently been finding its way into more universal devices such as the variety of mid-range phones that offer Chinese handwriting recognition or LG's recently launched Prada phone. Touchscreens have until recently been more commonly associated with GPS mapping units and specialized computer displays.

By Electronista Staff