Tablet touch-screen sales to hit 60 million this year

The success of the iPad will see Apple account for the majority of touch-screen displays sold until at least 2012, according to figures from market watcher DisplaySearch.

The company said that the market for touch displays used in tablet computers had grown since the release of the iPad and would continue to do so as the market evolves and new firms enter with competing devices.

But emergence of new firms may start to erode Apple's share of the market, however, as they turn to lower cost hardware for their tablets in order to lower costs, and as a result increase sales.

"Tablet PCs are the fastest growing application for touch screens," said DisplaySearch vice president of emerging display technologies, Jennifer Colegrove. She explained that while most devices use high end displays for their hardware, other firms will elect to employ lower cost options.

"Most tablet PC products will leverage multi-touch projected capacitive technology, following Apple's lead. At the same time, a small amount of tablet PCs are using resistive touch, since it is less expense and enables handwriting recognition," she added.

Currently the market sees around 50 million shipments of touch screens and DisplaySearch found that Apple accounts for around 40 million of these.

DisplaySearch predicts that 2012 will see an increase that takes shipments up to around 90 million per year. By then, Apple is predicted to take just over 50 million.

Afterwards, Apple's consumption of touch screens will continue to grow, but will be outpaced by other vendors, so its overall share of the market will gradually fall.

As well as driving touch-screen sales Apple is also credited with driving sales of DRAM memory.

That market is expected to grow by 800 per cent this year thanks to increased interest in tablet computers.