ABI Research projects that touch screen technology for mobile phones, MIDs, UMPCs, PNDs, and other handheld devices will pull in $5 billion globally in 2009. This figure comes after a 91% increase in shipments in 2007 of mobile devices with touch screen functionality.

One would think that Apple would be at the top of this demographic, with their iPhone rejuvenating the market for touch screens. But according to ABI, Samsung, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson lead the market, with Samsung holding 33%, Motorola 30%, and Sony Ericsson with 24%.

“Samsung and Motorola lead the market for touch screen phones primarily because of their scale and significant presence in the Asian market,” says ABI Research’s research director Kevin Burden. “Because it’s difficult to represent een a fraction of the common Asian characters on a QWERTY-style keyboard, touch screen devices on which characters can be written with a stylus are immensely popular. The Asia [and] Pacific market consumed more than 80% of the world’s touch screen-based mobile phone production over the past year.”

For more details, you can visit ABI recent study, titled, “Touch Screens in Mobile Devices.” The study examines the various touch screen technologies suited for the various mobile device form factors and sizes and forecasts the penetration of resistive, capacitive, and other competing touch screen technologies in mobile phones, PDAs, PNDs, UMPCs, MIDs, and Tablet PCs.