How Many Capacitive Touch Screens Are In The World?

Capacitive touch screens are the most common elements of a phone or device. These screens provide a rich display with a responsive touch experience. As an integral part of almost all the devices, these screens work by human touch interference or conductive stylus.

In this blog, we will explore the different ways of counting capacitive touch screens, the numerous factors that affect the number of capacitive touch screens, and the challenges associated with estimating how many capacitive touch screens are in the world.

Index:

1. Introduction To Capacitive Touch Screen Counting
2. The Different Types of Screens
3. Resistive Touch Screen:
4. Infrared Touch Screen:
5. Optical Imaging Touch Screen:
6. Capacitive Touch Screen:
7. How to Estimate the Counting Globally
8. Estimating The Number of Capacitive Touch Screens Globally
9. Using Online Data To Refine The Counting.
10. Gathering The Smart Mobile Phones Data:
11. Gathering The Laptop Data:
12. Gathering The Tabs Data:
13. Which Factors Affect the Capacitive Touch Screen Estimate?
14. Overcome the challenges in Counting Capacitive Touch Screens
15. The Actual Result:
16. Conclusion:

Introduction To Capacitive Touch Screen Counting

If you are wondering why is it important to count the capacitive touch screen units in the world here is the answer:

Counting units means understanding the selling-trend of a product and its demand. This data will be considered whether to improve the product by introducing new features or replace the entire technology.

Therefore, we are going to count how many capacitive touch screens are in the world to understand its demand, use, and production.

The Different Types of Screens

Since, the technology evolves in multiple branches and twigs likewise a tree. The screen technology evolved from Resistive Touch, Infrared Touch, Optical Imaging Touch, Projected Capacitive Touch or Capacitive Touch Screen.

Learn more about  IPS vs TN

Each type of touch screen has its own purpose and is still popular depending on its need.

Resistive Touch Screen:

A resistive touch screen is one of the most common types of touch screens that were popular in the early touch phones. These screens are still available in the market used in very specialized purposes that require limited touch input.

The resistive touch screen consists of two conductive layers separated by a small gap. When you touch the screen, the two layers come in contact and a sensor detects the position to respond.

These screens are relatively inexpensive but are sensitive due to the upper layer which is tensile. The touchscreen can work with both finger and stylus input. However, a sharp object can cause permanent damage. Moreover, the screens are likely to get scratches.

Infrared Touch Screen:

The uncommon type of screen which works by infrared LED lights and sensors mounted in all the corners of the screen. Additionally, when the screen is touched the infrared light is interrupted, a sensor detects the coordinates to respond.

Infrared touch screens are durable and have a long lifespan, making them ideal for public settings. However, they can be affected by ambient light, and they are not as sensitive to light touch as other types of touch screens.

Optical Imaging Touch Screen:

Optical imaging touch screens are used for specialized purposes and work by cameras mounted behind the screen to detect touch input. The cameras capture the touch coordinates, and the information is sent to the device processor. The Optical imaging touch screens are although highly expensive but accurate . They can be affected by ambient light.

Projected Capacitive Touch Screen:

Projected capacitive touch screens use a matrix of electrodes. The electrical field is disrupted, and the touch coordinates are detected likewise infrared touch screens. Therefore, projected capacitive touch screens are highly durable and can detect multi-touch soft input but are expansive.

Capacitive Touch Screen:

Capacitive touch screens are most common and modern screens have a layer of conductive material to detect touch input. Therefore, upon touching the screen, the electrical charge is disrupted, and the sensor detects the coordinates to respond.

Capacitive touch screens are highly accurate even with multi-touch input. They are touch sensitive, and work only by conductive input, such as a finger or stylus. The screens can be covered by gorilla glass or tempered glass to protect it from scratches.

Multi touch Capacitive Touch Screens

How to Estimate the Counting Globally

In this world, nothing is impossible thus estimating the count of capacitive touch screens globally is also possible. We will start by estimating how many smart phones, tablets, laptops, kiosks, ATMs and other electronics use capacitive screens by percentage ratio.

After estimating the number of devices we will consider 85% capacitive touch screens in the smartphones, 30% capacitive touch screens in laptops, 90% in tablets, and 40% in other electronics.

Because it is hard to find the exact number of screens, therefore the percentage is the best way to estimate the closest count. Also, we know not all the devices use capacitive touch screens so according to an online data (discussed later in the topic) we removed some percentage, assuming the types of screens used in the devices.

Estimating The Number of Capacitive Touch Screens Globally

To globally estimate the number of capacitive touch screens let’s start by preparing our data to calculate the devices used.

In 2009 the capacitive touch screens were launched and rapidly used in mobile phones. Additionally, The mobile production industries used the newer and smarter screen technology in their smartphones. So, it also means that tablets and laptops were also switched on to modern screen technology.

Using Online Data To Refine The Counting.

Gathering The Smart Mobile Phones Data:

According to online data, the number of smartphones shipped worldwide in 2009 was approximately 173 million. From this, we can estimate that the cumulative number of smartphones shipped globally between 2009 and 2010 was around 469 million (1732 million).

Hence, If we calculate the total production by summing up the data the estimated figure is 13.15 billion alone!

Gathering The Laptop Data:

Using online data we have concluded these results:

The number of touch screen laptops shipped worldwide in 2012 was approximately 4.5 million. In 2013, that number grew to around 11 million. Moreover, in 2014, touch screen laptop shipments surpassed 15 million and grew to nearly 2015 million.

In recent years, the number of touch screen laptops shipped has continued to grow. Surprisingly, alone In 2020, it is estimated that around 57 million touch screen laptops were shipped globally.

Based on these estimates, we can calculate the cumulative number of touch screen laptops shipped between 2012 and 2020. This would be approximately 138.5 million.

Gathering The Tabs Data:

Using online data we concluded the number of tablet shipments worldwide in 2010 was approximately 17 million. In 2011, that number grew to around 68 million. By 2012, tablet shipments surpassed 114 million and grew to nearly 23013 million.

In 2019, it is estimated that around 144 million tablets were shipped globally. Surprisingly, in recent years the popularity of tablets has declined due to the increased use of smartphones and touch screen laptops with larger screens.

Based on these estimates, we can calculate the cumulative number of tablets shipped between 2010 and 2019. Hence, this would be approximately 1.12 billion.

Which Factors Affect the Capacitive Touch Screen Estimate?

The factors that affect the capacitive touch screen estimate are as follows:

1. The separate capacitive touch screens are also sold and manufactured for each device.
2. A manufacturing company creates more units in case of damage or replacement products.
3. There’s many local manufacturers that hide their sales for tax.
4. Some household devices like fridge, smart washing machine, and air conditioners uses capacitive touch screen which can alter the estimate.

But we concluded how to overcome these challenges. Let’s take a quick look

Overcome the challenges in Counting Capacitive Touch Screens

To overcome the challenges that can make our estimate far to be closed we will consider a margin for each device. As mentioned previously we will consider 85% capacitive touch screens in smartphones of actual 13.15 billion, 30% capacitive touch screens in laptops of 85 actual 13 million, 90% in tablets of actual 1.12 billion. After taking out the percentage we will be adding 30% of the calculated answer once again considering the 30% consumer replaced their capacitive touch screens.

Note: We are excluding the separate units of capacitive touch screens that are not in use.

The Actual Result:

Now we are adding all the data but first we are deducting the percentage value from each result assuming not all devices had capacitive touch screens So, we get:

11177500000 – Smart phones from all manufacturers

96950000 – Laptop Devices from all manufacturers

1088000000 – Tablets from all manufacturers

The total becomes  : 12362450000 devices that consume Capacitive touch screens.

Now adding 30% more as replacement screens which is 3708735000.

The grand total becomes: 16071185000 or 16.07 Billion.

So our estimates show 16.07 billion Capacitive Touch Screens that are currently in use!

Conclusion:

In this blog we discussed how many capacitive touch screens there are in the world. We also discussed the types of the screens that were introduced and compared them. After all, using online data we calculated how many devices are there in the world, for example, how many smartphones are in the world, how many laptops and tabs are there. Moreover, our calculation also included the separate units that may be needed for replacement purposes.

So, If you like this article, share it and spread it! If you have any questions or suggestions, comment below!

All credit goes to  Chinacts – Micron