25% of handsets to follow iPhone by 2009?

Apple's forthcoming iPhone will likely result in the significant adoption of capacitive touch screen technology in future cellular phones, according to component manufacturer Synaptics. Apple's handset uses capacitive touch screen technology to help achieve the "revolutionary" user interface touted by company CEO Steve Jobs, which Synaptics believes will provide a big market boost to such technology moving forward. The manufacturer predicts that almost 25 percent of handsets will offer built-in capacitive touch screens by 2009, and points to forthcoming notebooks from Dell, HP, and Toshiba that will make use of capacitive touch screen technology in the second half of this year, according to DigiTimes.

Synaptics also claims that capacitive components are more rugged than mechanical keypads, offering greater design and outfit flexibility for notebook manufacturers. The company expects that 7 percent of handsets will include capacitive sensing components this year alone, with that number jumping to 24 percent in two years as the technology begins to replace resistive touch technology.