Taiwan-based Wintek's monthly touch panel shipments for Apple's new iPhones will reach 1.5 million units helping to boost Wintek's consolidated sales to NT$3 billion (US$98.86 million) per month during the third quarter, according to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN). In response to the report, Wintek said in a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) that it has been developing and shipping new applications, including touch panels, since last year, but it declined to comment on matters concerning specific clients or orders. Earlier this month, Wintek, which has a strong presence in the handset market, reported a 13.15% sequential decline in consolidated sales for June 2008 as a result of the sluggish global economy. At the time Wintek said seasonal growth is still possible in the third quarter, and touch panel shipments will be relatively strong in the second half of the year. In its report, EDN said Wintek had seen low utilization for TFT LCDs in the first half of the year as it waited for product validation by international handset vendors. But Wintek chairman Hyley Huang was cited as saying that the company's shipments of handset-use LCD modules (LCMs) are growing, as the high season has begun and demand from China's white-box handset market is picking up. source