70 Percent of Color Laser Printer Installed Base Use Chemical Toner In North America.
the
installed base of color laser printers that use chemical toner has
grown from about 5 percent of the total installed base in 1999 to about
70 percent of the total installed base of color lasers in 2005. A
timeline of product introductions helps to explain this explosive
growth. HP introduced the first color laser using chemical toner in
1998. Three years later, Xerox introduced its emulsion aggregate (EA)
toner, a chemical toner for color lasers. The following year, Konica
Minolta introduced color lasers that use chemical toner. By 2003, HP
was already on its second generation of color laser printers that use
chemical toner. Both Xerox and Konica Minolta have huge patent
portfolios surrounding the production of chemical toners, making it
more difficult for the aftermarket to compete.