Established in 1988 to serve the nascent laser printer market in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, LASERQuipT now has service contracts with thousands of clients including government agencies, financial institutions, corporations, and a realm of independent businesses and professionals.

The first generation of laser printers for the personal computer industry were introduced as recently as 1985. According to recent forecasts from Lyra Research, there are currently 24 million monochrome laser printer units in the U.S. installed base, consisting of more than 1,000 individual models. Of the top 25 of these models, Lyra estimates that 56 percent are more than four years old (see figure). These older models will account for more than half the toner cartridges sold in the United States in 2003. (Norwell, MA) June 5, 2003... CAP Ventures' research indicates that overall printer and printer-based multifunction unit placements in the United States increased 5.7%, growing from 26.1 million in 2001 to 27.6 million in 2002. The printer-based multifunctional peripherals (MFP) market was one of the most exciting segments for the printing industry during 2002. CAP Ventures estimates that MFP unit placements grew 40% year-over-year, from 3.6 million in 2001 to 5.2 million in 2002. According to IDC, HP owns 79.4 percent of the overall laser printer market as of fourth quarter 2003, while Canon has 8.8 percent of the market and Kyocera has 4.1 percent.

LASERQuipT technicians are qualified to service and perform preventative maintenance on 90% of the laser printers in operation, the overwhelming majority of are manufactured by Hewlett Packard and Canon. Nationwide sales of such products reached $5.1 billion in 1995, compared with $1.1 billion as recently as 1990.

DAVID R. NAAS, chairman and chief executive officer, founded LASERQuipT in 1988, prior to which he had been president of TopTech, Inc., Minneapolis. Naas launched his career in computers in 1976 as one of the nations first Apple Dealers. He went on to become a multiple-unit franchisee with Team Electronics, a national chain of electronic retail outlets, assembling a six store operation in the Twin Cities.