ABI: Touch Screen Handset Shipments to Top 100 M in 2008
November 30, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS
More than 100 million handsets with touch screens will be shipped in 2008, according to a new study from ABI Research.
Touch screens and touch pads are gaining popularity and becoming more common on handsets, while helping to make the handsets more intuitive, pleasant and efficient to use.
Increasing numbers of handsets with touch screens have started to appear in the market, analysts said, including the Apple iPhone, the LG Prada, the High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) Touch and the Ultra-Smart F700 from Samsung, as well as the P990, M600 and W950 handsets from Sony Ericsson.
"Handsets with intuitive user interfaces allow quick and easy access to various applications and services and can result in higher ARPUs [average revenues per user] for mobile operators by generating greater usage of their value-added services," said ABI Research industry analyst Shailendra Pandey.
"Mobile operators are therefore keen to promote and market handsets with good UI [user interface] on their networks."
In the past, analysts said many smartphones and high-end handsets with a good number of features have been commercial failures, simply because their UI has been too complex and difficult for convenient use. More than 500 million handsets shipped in 2012 will sport a touch-based user interface.
"A good handset UI is important not just to meet and exceed users' expectations, but also to support fast and flexible design changes, operator customizations and late software distribution, while maintaining low demands on the hardware," Pandey said.
Source: ABI Research.