AKIPRESS.COM - Samsung Electronics is the most preferred brand among the world's IT companies in Europe and the U.S., The Chosunilbo reported referring to U.S. market researcher Strategy Analytics.

The U.S. firm conducted a survey in December and January asking 6,119 European and U.S. consumers which IT brands they will and will not buy.

The brand preference rating is then measured by subtracting the proportion of those who say they will not buy a certain brand from the proportion who will, leaving Samsung at the top with 57.2 points.

It covers smartphones, TVs, tablets PCs and other gadgets. Samsung also ranked first in an earlier survey conducted in July of last year.

Next come Sony (43.9), Microsoft (24.5) and Hewlett-Packard (19.7).

Apple finished fourth last July but slid to fifth place (17.3), presumably because it released no new products and engaged in nearly no marketing activities while the survey was conducted.

LG jumped by one notch to sixth place (16.7), outdistancing Toshiba (14.5).

Some brands had negative preference ratings. China's Huawei was the least preferred brand at -48, though that was an increase of 3.8 points compared to July.

BlackBerry and Motorola were also listed in the doldrums with -22 and -36.