A new Harris study on Tuesday again gave Motorola, Verizon Wireless the lead in mobile categories in the 2011 Harris Poll EquiTrend.
Motorola outranked it in a large January survey of Americans, giving the Droid creator a top score of 64.4 among phone makers where Apple managed 59.3. It wasn’t even second place as the study also put HTC (60.6), Sony Ericsson (59.8), and even Nokia (59.5) slightly higher.
“There is still a large audience of consumers that aren’t interested in a smartphone running their life, and Apple doesn’t have a product to meet that need,” Harris Executive VP Jeni Lee Chapman said.
HP scored 69.9 where Apple was close at 68.3. The company had the advantage of its ubiquity in stores along with its long-serving brand name. Apple was still well ahead of Dell’s 64.1-point score.
Other scores were more in line with expectations. Verizon beat out AT&T for the most valued carrier brand, while Sony was at the forefront for general home electronics. Nintendo was the best reputed console maker to beat both Sony and Microsoft.
The rankings put a strong emphasis on brand equity, which Harris said included a mix of not just familiarity with a brand but its perceived quality and whether or not a buyer was likely to consider it.
