Over the next five years, touchscreens will feature on 97% of all smartphones, according to market resaerch firm ABI Research.
ABI Research said that touchscreens can claim as much credit for the success of smartphones as can 3G data speeds.
In the time prior to the launch of the original iPhone, smartphones with touchscreens have gone from 7% of the total smartphone volume in 2006 to 75% in 2010.
ABI Research said that touchscreens were a key driver to the market growing more than 325% over the period.
The firm added that the more economical resistive touch technology has been almost universally replaced in smartphones with the more elegant projected capacitive technology that was first introduced in mobile phones through the iPhone.
Screen and touch technologies continue to evolve said ABI Research.
ABI Research mobile devices vice-president Kevin Burden said low-cost capacitive touch controllers that use just a single layer of sensors instead of two, and save as much as 30% on the cost, are opening the market for lower-end feature phones.
Burden continued, "And eReaders, which are the most fragmented device category in both display and touch technology, now have options that not only enable finger touch, but are at a cost that could standardise the segment’s displays."
