Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2012/12/13/consumers_rate_samsung_and_apple_says_brand_survey/

Punters rate Apple, Samsung more highly than ever

And turn their backs on other tech titans

By Tony Smith

Posted in Personal Tech, 13th December 2012 11:36 GMT

Are we all becoming fanboys? If you broaden the term beyond those who favour Apple products to encompass folk keen on Samsung kit, the answer appears to be yes.

At least that's what data from Strategy Analytics, a market watcher, suggests. It polled 6500 Europeans and Americans in October 2012, asking them all to name and rate the brands whose technology and consumer electronics products they’d rather buy.

Samsung, already top of the list, remains the most favoured supplier, but this year gained 4.4 points on second-place Sony, taking its lead to a clear 17 points, SA said.

Apple’s score also went up, by 2.3 points. That wasn’t sufficient to allow it to overtake Sony, but it did move past HP, which, like Sony and most other brands, saw their preference ratings fall.

The poorest performers were Blackberry, which dropped ten points. Nokia fell by more than four points, as did Motorola. On the other hand, Panasonic and Asus both scored "marginal" improvements.

The top ten brands in order of preference are Samsung, Sony, Apple, HP, LG, Panasonic, Dell, Nokia, Philips, and Toshiba. Bubbling under are Acer, Sharp, Asus, Motorola, Sanyo, Blackberry and Lenovo.

“These survey findings suggest that the 12-month outlook for both Samsung and Apple remains rosy,” said David Mercer, a Strategy Analytics principal analyst. He added that Apple has now overtaken Samsung as the number one preferred brand in the highest income segment.

Fanboys, it seems, are a generally well-heeled lot - handy, should Apple's rumoured HD TV ambitions prove true. But unlikely to be French or German. In these territories, SA’s numbers show, Apple’s ratings are "significantly lower" than other nations. ®