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“While the overall notebook PC market remains sluggish, sales of touch panels for notebook PCs are showing some signs of life in the fourth quarter,” said Stone Wu, principal analyst for display components and materials at IHS. “The resumption of double-digit growth is being driven by the full-scale launch of 10.1-inch touch-screen panels that appeal to consumers, along with the introduction of a new microprocessor solution and the arrival of exciting new form factors.” However, even with the disappointing growth, shipments of notebook touchscreen panels will rise to 18.2 million sheets in 2013, up nearly 500 percent from 3.2 million in 2012. This makes touch-screen notebooks the fastest-growing segment of the PC market today.

The notebook touch-screen panel market in the second half has been boosted by the launch of products based on the new low-power Atom Bay Trail central processing unit (CPU) chip from Intel Corp. After a decline in the second quarter of 2013 and a tepid expansion in the third, demand for touch-screen panels used in notebook PCs is set to rebound to double-digit growth during the last three months of the year. "The resumption of double-digit growth is being driven by the full-scale launch of 10.1-inch touch-screen panels that appeal to consumers, along with the introduction of a new microprocessor solution and the arrival of exciting new form factors.” However, even with the disappointing growth, shipments of notebook touchscreen panels will rise to 18.2 million sheets in 2013, up nearly 500 percent from 3.2 million in 2012. This makes touch-screen notebooks the fastest-growing segment of the PC market today.

Taken from a report by independent market research; According to the report, the flexible display market will grow to $1.3 billion in 2016, and then continuously make a rapid growth to $67.7 billion by 2023, accounting for about 20% of the total flat display market. Shipments of flexible displays will amount to 24 million units in 2016, and the figure is expected to expand to 1.8 billion by 2023, making up about 25% of the total flat display market. The flexible display market will not only replace the existing display market, but also create markets for new kinds of display applications, driving the growth of the display market. The report forecasts that the substitute market will amount to $900 million in 2016 and hike to $32.8 billion by 2023, while the new market will total $400 million in 2016 to $34.9 billion by 2023.

Hottentot... my personal view is that its very possible we could easily see 250 & wouldn't be surprised to see it fall through even that figure short term. It really depends on what you believe from all the various sources. Carclo said XSense WILL be launched in a range of devices in the final half of their year. Atmel said that they have other tier one customers (apart from HP) who they can't go public with because their devices are not yet on the market. Talking about further design they also said they have other tier ones who are also not yet public. If you believe those recent statements then you have to believe that XSense HAS been adopted & the future looks rosy. The question everyone-wants to know is WHERE are those devices, WHY are they not on the market in time for the best buying season of the year if XSense is all its made out to be. I think the answer is self evident, go into PC world, go into Curry's, what do you see? Answer; Row after row of touch screen devices, both large & small! Dr. John Fenn is a well recognised world expert on the ITO industry. He recently chaired an ITO replacement technology session in Santa Clara. He made a comment which I think very well explains the situation. "there are reports of a glut of large TS devices on the market at the moment which could take a quarter or two to work itself through" I think he's right, the evidence for it is on the shop shelves. I believe Carclo & Atmel ARE telling the truth, I believe XSense HAS been adopted but I also believe the OEM's are NOT going to rush new devices onto the shelves until at least the Xmas buying season AND the NewYear sales have depleted the existing stocks. It took Omni 10 3 months from design win to shop shelf, a perfectly normal timescale in this field, I believe other OEM's ARE ready to go... just not yet. As an investor I don't believe in averaging down, 'topping up' after a large fall isn't good investment policy in my book. But because of my belief in the XSense story... I honestly think going long anywhere under 300p will give VERY handsome profits... but they may not be apparent for about another month or so, it could even be more like the end of February. BUT.... Atmel next present in Las Vegas Jan 8 AND 9th so you never can tell...... :) GLA .

Hi hawker, know what you mean about the competion but really its a quite normal glitzy sort of thing for the Amercans to get up to. You never know someone might think of a world beating revolutionary use for Xsense that no-one else thought of!!! There's also definitely manipulation by at least two players in cahoots with each other. Yesterday was blatant, they are not even trying to hide it, there were 18 sells for 254 shares, then one 4572 buy, giving the impression of a sea of red, although meaningles initself it keeps the sp moving around which is what they want. There will almost certainly be a considerable amount of less-visible manipulation going on. Not much anyone can do except wait for a breakout.

An uptodate definative referance work & guide to competeing TS solutions from Intels Senior Touch Technologist, Geoff Walker http://www.walkermobile.com/Touch_Technologies_Tutorial_Latest_Version.pdf

Just to add a wee bit of cheer the link below is about the new Omni 10 contains XSense which has been available on pre-order in the states for the last month. http://thebest10inchtablet.com/tag/best-10-inch-tablet/ Also to add to the above, there is not much doubt that ANY PO's which increase revenue for Carclo will have a good effect on such a tiny company... but I'm VERY doubtfull that the megga bucks once envisaged may not now be forthcoming & be 'transformational' unless they can prove that the opticle quality is good enough to warrant it. A few smaller wins for low volume devices such has the Omni will bring a smile to some faces but are not going to be 'transformational' Only a major win for a premium device is going to change sentiment. At the moment IMO the signs of that dont look good... so I'm expecting to see more volatility & low trade volumes for a while longer yet.

Hey Hottentot, it's been a while but of course DO remember, good to see your still on board with Carclo. I still think folk need to consider where Carclo, Atmel & XSense are at the moment in relation to all that's gone on over the last few months. The upsides are what both companies have been telling us... which is everything is going to plan & lots more to come. But the downsides have IMO equal merit. Atmel have withdrawn guidance for Xsense revenue, Carclo have accordingly guided down, validation was achieved 5 months ago but take up has been minute, other competitors have product on shelves, Levono 20 inch AIO have silver mesh, LG/Google Nexus 5 has Synaptic's in cell, There is no doubt that the world of touch screen panels (TSP) has moved on & is continuing to move on. Ignoring up coming innovative technology which may or may not happen eventually.... optical quality IS a major issue, Atmel admit that the waste involved is a major issue for large screen production. The micron size HAS to be invisible in small mobile screens, that is where ITO has the advantage, other serious competitors are now claiming products that beat ITO for quality. The BIG problem IMO is we no idea what the size of XSense is... but they admit to concentrating on the large screen area, so how good is it... if its not suitable for small screens. They won't tell us... & taken with the almost zero take up I find that concerning. Here is just one link amongst many others that point to where serious players in the TSP space are moving to. http://english.etnews.com/device/2879475_1304.html

I absolutly agree that we don't want marketing hype but there is a PR balance to be drawn. Carclo can only tell it like it is & in their last outing that's exactly what they did IMO. However a false market has developed for no material reason. There is provision in the FSA rules for companies to make announcements to the market to either stop the formation of a false market or to stop the continuation of a false market. A simple RNS, reiterating their expectations & claiming no knowledge for the sp falls etc. etc... would most likely have stopped the bears in their tracks & restored a more positive market sentiment... & it would have cost nothing. But what is done is done & as gocarlco said... It's all in the timing. If the HP win had been announced when the sp was around 380 it would probably have shot up a quid!! Sentiment has a lot to be responsible for!

HP Omni 10 containing XSense "moved into production over the last week".... no interest in the lower end of the market... Microsoft & Intel insisting on touch in large screen devices which XSense is aimed at.

Today's presentation starts at 2.15. http://storm.zoomvisionmamato.com/player/nasdaq/objects/y6madkfp/

It could be there are a couple of professional cuties playing the market. In the AT system every sell is a also a buy, buying lots of small bids to sell... records them as sells against just one buy (thats as i understand it) there are are simply to many small sells giving the impression that its wall to wall red when it really means nothing. Im pretty sure that a lot of what we are seeing is blatent market manipulation. Seeing lots of red of course makes the nervous more nervous, promoting more sells. I do feel that a great deal of the prevailing feeling of uncertainty can be laid directly at Carclo's door tho, their investor & public relations needs sorting out, there is far too much ambiguity. Virtually all their competitors are boasting about their specs, Carclo simply say their offering is the best, IF so why so shy? Now its said Xsense is in a 3.2 inch smartphone.... where do get one of those nowadays... Is that the pre-validation mobile screens sent to India? They say its in 6, 7 & 10 inch tablets... well yes, we know the 10 inch one... HP Omni... nothing to get excited about & no public announcement!!! What about the 7 inch... is that referring to the pre-validation Asus trial? That leaves a 6inch tablet... what's one of those when its about? Asda's latest!!?? The shorts case is very easily made!!! Carclo need to much better & very soon.

Thanks Hawker... BlackRock was the only fund manager I've seen to be previously short... although I think its a wee bit dangerous to short at this sp level, I can still see the short term appeal, British Bulls are still flagging it as a short so its highly possible it might decline further before we're through. As it stands at the moment I wouldn't be that surprised to see it bottom out around 220p.In the short term. It might be that there is also some 'bear' manipulation going on in the background, there have been some strange trades. I can't see Carclo wanting this to go on much longer, it hurts them as well... so hopefully pressure will be applied & the Atmel presentation in London on Wednesday will contain some news that will help get the sp back on track. The presentation starts at 2.15 & will be webcast, also archived on Atmel's web site.

Nothing in the background story has changed Bezzy... mm's probably shacking the tree, still some nervous folk hanging on to the branches... bears having fun whilst they still can. It could be its touched bottom & maybe on the way back up now. Nothing to be concerned about. Looking forward to a good presentation in London on Wednesday... hope we get a transcript!

Click on the business header to read the article!

An interesting read about a recent local analyast briefing & tour of the plant in the local Colorado Springs rag 1/12/13. http://gazette.com/atmel-in-colorado-springs-devotes-part-of-plant-to-touchscreen-technology/article1510083 Shahin Sharifzadeh, Atmel's senior Vice President of worldwide operations, "Xsense is being used in a smartphone with a 3.2 inch screen & tablet computers with 6-,7 and 10 inch screens & that it could be used in a laptop computer with a screen of up to 15.6 inches" Global Market to grow from $200m this year to $4 billion by 2020 Analysyst for Morgan Stanley estimate Atmel could capture as much as 25% of market for sensors in touchscreen 9 inch & larger within 3years, representing $250m in annual sales.

Stockpickfree, yep, incredibly I almost became a UNXL investor, ended up doing my best to support an Atmel long, also know a guy who used the work for Atmel, lives near the Colorado site & whose got a buddy who still works on site.. On chips, not XSense, but handy to know. I get fed tid bits by private email from a couple of longs. I have a public battle with RxR... but he's actually got good contacts. He was told by an Oppenheimer analyst that Omni had XSense on Sunday... he was the first to know & pm'd it straight away to us... went & checked it out for himself & emailed his performance report to us... so credit where credit is due. It's why I knew it was true when it was finally made public . There is also another long standing Carclo investor on SA. We fight for a good cause!

Strong possibility that 300 will be broken sooner than might be thought. Not withstanding any other issues don't forget that Atmel reported that they were already "shipping designs to multiple teir one customers" We now seem to have had one result from that statement... So beware more could follow VERY closely on its heels. if we get even one more win announced from ANOTHER well known major its a pointer that the supply chain issues may have been beaten. That may well light the blue touch paper. The investor show on the 4th could be a quite boastful affair! In any event, ignoring short term issues & taking only even a 6 month view... at this level its a steal IMO.

I've seen it suggested that one way Atmel can overcome the supply chain resistance is to provide their own lamination capacity. I suppose they could do that if it continues to be a brick wall but not sure how. Buy out an ODM? Build their own lamination plant? Both VERY expensive solutions. I think one of the good things to come out of the HP win is they seem to have overcome the problem but it might be only a trial. One other way which I think might happen in the long term is to licence the ODM's to do the sensor work for them. I don't think Carclo would mind who does it as long as they get paid for the coated film.

The competitive landscape looks very grim indeed. It is IMO one of the main reasons behind the sp drop considering that the drop really took on immediate substance after a set of pretty good results. I slowly but substantially reduced my holding a couple of days before the results simply because of what I perceived to be market sentiment built around the competition. I then got stopped out completely at 340. All back in now tho!! The problem with the competition is sorting fact from fiction. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that there has been a whole sea change in recent months. Some of that started behind the scenes last year but is only in recent months that it has become evident. The REAL competion is from the module assemblers. Under the new disruptive age Carclo ship the film, Atmel turn it into a sensor & then ship it to the module assemblers or ODM as they are called (asian)... they laminate it & send it to the OEM, he sticks it in his device & ships it to the shops. That's the supply chain we want to see & to do that we have to DISRUPT the order of business that has always previously been in place. As you can see the ODM guys won't be very happy chappies! They stand to lose a substantial part of their business to an outside sensor only manufacturer. They would become mere laminators!! SO... they fight back.. they do that in 2 main ways... 1) they now make their own mesh, I believe its mainly silver... turn it into a sensor & give it to the OEM & therefore by-pass an outsider!! A one stop shop for the OEM!!! 2) If the OEM insists on using an outside supplier the ODM charges the OEM lots more for the lamination to nullify the cost advantage that the outsider supposedly has over ITO. VERY difficult to overcome!!! As a direct result of the disruption the cost of ITO has fallen quite dramativly which adds to the problems. There are MANY other players who have joined in this fun too, most can probably be discounted but NOT all, some will be very worthy opponents, on top of that there are other innovations, Graphene, nanotubes, products with even sub micron lines.... all a long way off, but all adding to the flavour that Carclo might not have even an inch of space to play in. Where Xsense provides the differential from the rest of the competition is in its quality. It's ideally suited to the larger screen formats. ITO has sheet resistance issues & is not suitable for the larger touch screens. It's also brittle & it makes it very difficult to manufacture in larger sizes. Silver, whether mesh or nanowire has reflective issues which show as a haze around the edges & come to the fore in large sizes. Even Cambrios, who are the nanowire supplier to a number of other companies, say their offering is suitable for low to mid range devices. We don't know what the micron size of Carclo's lines are, all we know is that they are so fine that the opticle quality is 'unrecognisable' from the pre-validation un