Consumers have given a huge vote of confidence in both Samsung and Apple according to the latest consumer brand preference rankings just released by Strategy Analytics’ ConsumerMetrix service. Over the past six months Samsung has improved its score by 4.4 points, extending its leadership over Sony to 17 points. Apple’s rating increased by 2.3 points and it leapfrogs HP into third place. Panasonic and Asus both scored marginal improvements but all other technology brands saw declines in preference rankings. Mobile-centric brands have performed the worst over the past half-year. Blackberry’s score fell by nearly ten points, while both Motorola and Nokia saw declines of more than four points. More than 6500 respondents in the US and Europe were asked to consider how likely they would be to choose each of more than twenty global brands when buying technology products such as computers, mobile phones, TVs and related products.

“These survey findings suggest that the 12-month outlook for both Samsung and Apple remains rosy,” says David Mercer, Principal Analyst at Strategy Analytics. “By contrast most rivals are struggling to improve consumer support and urgently need to improve mindshare.”

Apple has now overtaken Samsung as the number one preferred brand in the highest income segment. Apple still suffers, however, in France and Germany, where its ratings are still significantly lower than in other markets.

The top 17 brands in order of preference are Samsung, Sony, Apple, HP, LG, Panasonic, Dell, Nokia, Philips, Toshiba, Acer, Sharp, Asus, Motorola, Sanyo, Blackberry, Lenovo.

Editor’s Note: Strategy Analytics conducted an online survey, the ConsumerMetrix Survey fielded in October 2012. The sample consisted of n=2285 individuals in the US and n=4268 in Europe ages 15-74. Strategy Analytics weighted the data by country, age, gender and internet use to represent the US and European populations of internet users, respectively.

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