While touch panels have seen rapid adoption in various terminal devices, business for the touch panel industry is taking off in 2011 and will grow quickly over the next 3-5 years, said chairman Michael Chiang of TPK Holdings at the company's 2011 shareholders meeting on June 9.

TPK's capacity expansion for touch modules and panels has lagged behind increases in orders, Chiang indicated. In light of such large business potential, TPK needs to keep expanding production capacity over the next few years. This is the reason the company decided to deal out a small dividend of NT$0.50 (US$0.02) per share for 2010 in contrast to its actual net EPS of NT$23.03, Chiang explained.

TPK will increase in-house production of glass-based touch sensors, cover glass and touch modules and procure automated equipment to minimize production costs, Chiang noted. TPK aims to provide touch solutions for a full range of screen sizes to compete for orders from vendors of smartphones, tablet PCs and e-book readers, Chiang pointed out.

TPK is expected to ship more than 6.3 million touch panels and supply 70-75% of touch panels used in iPad and iPhone in the second quarter of 2011, according to industry sources.