Emerging Display Technologies (EDT) has announced revenues of NT$401 million (US$13.28 million) for October, remaining flat sequentially and increasing 52% on year.

Accumulated revenues from January to October totaled NT$3.28 billion, an increase of 48% on year.

EDT's touch panel production is close to full capacity due to strong orders, and a second production line for capacitive touch panel is scheduled to start mass production in the second quarter of 2011.

With the fourth quarter being the traditional weak season for small-size panels, shipments of TFT and STN LCD modules are expected to drop, but demand for touch panels is expected to remain strong. Shipments for a US-based vendor's 7-inch MID and China-based vendors' smartphones are expected to continue to increase in the fourth quarter and help drive revenue growth.

EDT is optimistic about demand from GPS products such as in-car and handheld navigation devices with screen sizes of 4.3- and 5.7-inch. EDT indicated that navigation devices mainly adopt resistive touch technology, but capacitive touch's growing popularity in the handset market will help boost the technology's adoption in the navigation device market.

The narrowing price gap between capacitive and resistive touch panels for 4.3- and 5.7-inch products will also help capacitive touch enter the navigation device market, EDT noted.