Touch Controller IC Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Application, By Technology, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies, And Segment Forecasts, 2019 To 2025

The global touch controller IC market is expected to witness significant growth over the forecast period owing to the increasing demand for touchscreens in LCDs, computer desktops, and laptops. Rising demand for smartphones, smart screen monitors, and tablets coupled with increasing acceptance of conventional touchscreen for portable and functional electronics are anticipated to propel the industry growth over the next eight years. Furthermore, the development of NUI devices, driven by the rapid penetration of touch systems in consumer electronics is anticipated to be the key driver of the growth by 2024. The smartphone industry is expected to grow at a CAGR over 20%, which is likely to have a positive impact on the market over the projected period. The demand for the product is driven by key smartphone manufacturers including Samsung, Apple, HTC, LG, Xiaomi, ZTE, and Micromax. These companies use the product in smartphones, laptops, phablets, tablets, smart screens, and other electronic devices. Growing technological advancements through continuous R&D endeavors is the major factor anticipated to drive these companies growth and in turn pushing the industry growth over the next eight years. Few other emerging players such as Asus, XOLO, One plus, Huawei, Lava, Acer, and Parla in the smartphone sector are projected to bolster the growth, mainly due to growing competition leading to focus on delivering the high-value product. These companies are expected to account for more than one-third market share, thus driving the touch controller IC industry in a similar way.

Touch Controller IC acts as an input sensitive to pressure allowing the information to flow from electrically conductive layer to the controller to process it. It is a non-memory semiconductor that transforms analog signals into digital signals whenever a user touches the screen on a device. The two types of touchscreens, propelling industry demand, include resistive and capacitive. A resistive screen panel is coated with a metallic electrically conductive layer that causes a change in the current electrical after touch to the controller for processing. Whereas, a capacitive screen display is coated with a material that stores electrical charges and upon a touch that charge is drawn to the point of contact where after measuring the value it sends the information to the controller to process. Growing consumer electronics industry in across various parts of the world is expected to be a key factor for boosting the demand. Other than mobile device industry, smart TVs with touchscreens are projected to witness significant growth by 2024 due to the web-enhanced features, top content, and computing functionality. Rising demand from end-user companies such as Google, Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft Corporation, Philips, Samsung, Sony, Haier, and Toshiba are also likely to boost the industry growth over the next eight years.

The touch controller IC market is segmented by module, functionality, and panel technology. The panel technology is further bifurcated into capacitive, resistive, infrared, optical, on cell and in the cell. Capacitive technology is expected to witness significant market share owing to its advantages such as zero pressure touch, multi-touch, and longer life. Rising demand for the technology for manufacturing televisions, smart monitor screens, and mobile phones is expected to have a positive impact on the growth.

The market is segmented by technology into four different IC types, which are MCU, ASIC, Custom Controller, and Analogue Controllers. The MCU and ASIC controller ICs are anticipated to report the highest growth by 2024 owing to rising demand from consumer electronic display technology market, thus controlling overall sector demand. The market is segmented by application into three broad categories constituting consumer application, commercial application, and industrial application. Each of these categories is further classified into transport, education, retail, medical, and entertainment. Largely consumer application segment accounts for more than 75% of the total revenues generated by the industry and hence it is projected to see significant growth over the forecast period. The primary applications are GPS devices, touch screen monitors, portable instruments, media players, PDAs, and mobile communication devices.

North America and Europe are anticipated to report major growth over the next eight years owing to growing demand from end-use industries and rising awareness of its varied applications. Particularly the US, Germany, France, the UK, and Italy are projected to account for the highest growth in the region primarily due to rising R&D endeavors by the companies and owing to the presence of the major market players dedicated to developing the capacitive technology.

Asia-Pacific is forecasted to witness the accelerated growth over the forecast period due to increasing demand for smart consumer electronics products. India, China, South Korea, and Taiwan are projected to account for the significant market share in the region primarily due to rising industrial application, economic development, and high precision technology adoption for various industrial operations. The Middle East & Africa is predicted to see significant growth by 2024 mainly owing to increasing urbanization, globalization, and industrialization. The touch controller IC market has tremendous potential in this region primarily because of growing economic development, and rising purchasing power parity.

Key players in the touch controller IC market include Atmel, Cypress, and Synaptics. Few other emerging vendors are Melfas, Zinitix, and Image Technology.