MANHASSET, N.Y. — Market researcher DisplaySearch is forecasting that the touch screen module market will grow to $9'billion by 2015, from $3.6 billion in 2008, an annual growth rate of 14 percent.

"Touch screens are becoming widespread due to the ease of use and intuitive interfaces they enable, which can save time and increase productivity," Jennifer Colegrove, director of display technologies at DisplaySearch, said in a statement.

There are over a dozen touch screen technologies. About 60 companies are manufacturing resistive touch screens, the leader in terms of unit shipments. Both surface and projected capacitive technologies have attracted numerous suppliers, and many companies are also pursuing multi-touch capabilities.

The 2009 Touch Panel Market report analyzed the reasons for some of the trends.

Popularized by Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch introduced in 2007, shipments of projected capacitive touch screens have increased substantially, becoming the second biggest touch technology behind resistive touch.

About 27 touch screen suppliers manufacture the displays. Meanwhile, projected capacitive technology has evolved to a single layer or film type, and can be manufactured in sizes larger than 100 inches.

Before the iPhone, multi-touch implementation required large, heavy and expensive devices. Currently, about 50 suppliers are shipping multi-touch screens using different technologies. Microsoft's upcoming Windows'7 will support multi-touch.

Mobile phones are the biggest application for touch screens in terms of unit shipments. There were about 220'million touch screens shipped for mobile phone applications in 2008, a 16 percent penetration rate. DisplaySearch forecasts that the penetration rate for touch screens in mobile phones will reach nearly 40 percent by 2015.

DisplaySearch also predicted that this year will bring even more new touch technologies that will reach commercialization and increasing penetration, including in-cell, force sensing and some combination-type touch panels.

The market researcher surveyed over 170'suppliers of touch screen modules, controller ICs, ITO films and other technologies to produce its 2009 Touch Panel Market Analysis. These firms are profiled in the report, and 2008'shipments and revenues for over 100'touch screen suppliers are included.

DisplaySearch co-sponsors the upcoming SID Business Conference during the Society for Information Display Week May 31 to June 5 in San Antonio, Texas.

At SID a technical paper by researchers at Motorola Labs will detail a 3.5-inch prototype multi-touch, pixilated force-sensing touch screen that aims to eliminate false readings and improving accuracy in locating touch centers on displays.