A new report by Forrester Research has found that trust in consumer technology brands fell 2.3% between 2003 and 2005, with Apple and TiVo the only two companies seeing a rise among the US consumers surveyed.
Overall, Bose, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Panasonic and Sony were the top five most trusted technology brands last year; while Microsoft, Gateway and LG Electronics ranked among the lowest.
Conducted every two years by Forrester, the survey has been running since 2001 and asks consumers how they use, plan to use and trust 48 major technology brands, including 22 PC and consumer electronics brands.
The Forrester report attributes the decline in trust to an increased importance of price over brand and a growing number of ‘technology pessimists’ owning computers.
Around 48.1% of US households agreed that price was more important than brand, up 1.3% from 2003. Between 2003 and 2005, the ratio of technology pessimists increased to 46.5% of device owners, up 2.6% from 2003.
According to Forrester, the information contained in the survey offers marketers lessons in attracting and reaching new customers for their technology products.
