With the notebook market following the PC market toward lower shipments worldwide, manufacturers are now searching for new ways to entice customers back from tablets. One of the most obvious and ham-fisted ways manufacturers have done this is to ad their own touchscreen displays to notebooks. Though the usefulness of such displays could be disputed, manufacturers are still sticking with it and customers are now slowly adapting.

Market research firm NPD DisplaySearch today revealed new results from its quarterly notebook shipment report. The firm estimates that 19.8 million touchscreen notebooks will have shipped by the end of this year. This represents only 11% of total notebook shipments, though the firm also estimates that touchscreen notebooks will reach over 40% notebook market penetration by 2017.

Though more touchscreen notebooks are making their way to consumers, that doesn’t necessarily mean consumers are demanding the technology. Slow adoption rates could mean that future adoption will be driven mainly by manufacturers.

“Touch penetration in notebooks was modest in the first half of the year, and we expect a slight increase to 10% in the second half,” said Richard Shim, senior analyst at DisplaySearch. “Premium pricing and a lack of compelling uses for touch screens on notebooks continue to hinder adoption. As touch interfaces become increasingly common across all mobile devices, however, it is just a matter of time before the technology also becomes more prevalent in notebooks.”

DisplaySearch data shows that ASUS is currently leading the touchscreen notebook market by shipping over 26% of all touchscreen notebooks in the first half of 2013. A full one-fifth of ASUS notebooks shipped during that time had touchscreen capabilities. Lenovo and Acer follow behind with 14.7% and 13.5% market share, respectively, though neither of those manufacturers shipped more than 10% of their notebooks with touchscreens.

(Image courtesy ASUS)