Touchscreen operator terminals remain the fastest growing and most publicised sector of the Chinese operator terminal (HMI hardware) market, yet the market for non-touchscreen terminals - including text displays, text operator terminals and graphic operator terminals - is still experiencing steady growth in China, according to a new market report released by IMS Research. Unit shipments of non-touchscreen operator terminals are forecast to experience a CAGR of 10.6 per cent over the next five years.
Some commentators suggest that the non-touchscreen operator terminal market sector is rapidly dying within China and these products will soon be wholly replaced by touchscreen products in a number of years. However, IMS Research's findings suggest this migration is occurring at a substantially lower rate. As a result, in aggregate, text displays, text operator terminals and graphic operator terminals were estimated to account for about 47 per cent of all operator terminals sold in China in 2006. This is projected to decrease to 43 per cent of all operator terminals sold in China by 2011.
Market research analyst, Jackey Wang, comments: "Non-touchscreen operator terminal products will continue to grow throughout the forecast period of our report, even though there is a trend of migration towards higher-level, touchscreen products. Applications will continue to exist for lower-level products in five years time and beyond, where price limitations remain an issue. Some OEMs and end-users simply cannot justify the increase in cost associated with adoption of the higher-level touchscreen products.
"Even if existing users of lower level operator terminals do realise the benefits of touchscreen terminals and choose to migrate, there is likely to remain a new customer base of users that previously did not utilise operator terminals at all, who require entry-level basic display products".
