IHS pointed that fllowing suit of smartphones, the use of direct bonding is expected to increase across tablet and notebook PCs. Apple Inc. already applied direct bonding to the newly launched 9.7-inch iPad Air 2.

Direct bonding costs more than the air gap solution. Bonding the cover glass to a touch panel and a liquid crystal display (LCD) or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display requires additional material and process costs for adhesives. With the widespread use of direct bonding over the past two to three years, its yield rate has improved, but overall, it remains in the 90% range, still requiring additional process, material, and labor costs associated with rework.

In terms of touch panel,the adhesive market for touch panels including optically clear adhesive (OCA) and optically clear resin (OCR) is on the rise. However, a decline in the number of touch panel layers is negative to OCA. An increase in demand for touch panels with many laminated layers such as the GFF type would be welcome news for the OCA market, but the GFF is losing its ground to the GF1 type.

Furthermore, GF2, LCD in-cell, LCD on-cell, and AMOLED on-cell touch types are expanding their market share. These touch panel structures with a lesser number of layers than GFF have advantages in making a thinner and cheaper product, and therefore are promising to consumers or brands. In contrast, demand for OCR and the market are expected to grow steadily.