Inkjet printers dominate the market share among various printing technologies. They are affordable to most middle-class people in the developed world and fast catching up in regions like China and the Indian subcontinent.
Inkjet technology has matured and now only two different technological variations control almost 100% of the inkjet market. The thermal inkjet technology employed by HP, Canon, Lexmark, Samsung and others and the micro piezo technology invented and employed by Epson of Japan.
Both of these inkjet technologies are competitive until now, but despite all the advances, inkjet printers suffer from several disadvantages such as less than laser quality prints, slow speeds which are typically half to one tenth as fast as laser printers of similar price, and poor capacity of ink cartridges.
Laser printers typically print at least 2000 pages on a single cartridge and this can rise to as many as 20,000 pages on some high end laser printers. On the other hand inkjet printers typically print 100-200 pages per cartridge and occasionally may go as high as 2200 pages per cartridge.
The fastest inkjet printers can now print up to 15 pages of black and white prints per minute and 7-8 pages of color prints according to International Standards Organization (ISO) whereas lasers typically print at least 20-25 pages per minute of black and at least 10-12 pages per minute of color prints.
Prices for laser printers, both monochrome and color, have been dramatically falling over last 3 years, and now one may buy a monochrome laser printer for as low as 30$ and color laser printer for 100$ or less reducing the cost advantage so far enjoyed by inkjet technology.
During 2010, inkjet printers enjoyed 66% market share worldwide and lasers cornered the rest. However, inkjet purchases saw a 14% unit growth versus 25% for laser printers.
In future Laser printers are bound to displace inkjet printers as the dominant technology.