Nintendo Wii affirms that it is the number one video game system for America’s youth and surpasses Sony’s Playstation 3 to become the Video Gaming Platform Brand of the Year, reports the 2012 Harris Poll Youth EquiTrend study by Harris Interactive. While game systems in general receive higher equity scores than other technologies surveyed, Nintendo Wii earns the overall highest equity score among all technology brands included in the study.

Meanwhile, Apple brands sweep the personal device arena and rank highest in Computer, Mobile Phone and Computer Tablet categories, proving themselves the undisputed leading electronics brands among young consumers.

Youth EquiTrend calculates brand equity by measuring familiarity, quality, and purchase consideration; develops an average score for each category; and awards “Brand of the Year” honors to the highest ranking brands in their respective categories. Within the 13 youth interest categories that comprise the study, there are four technology, telecommunication, and gaming groups:

Computer (13-24): Apple Computers is the 2012 Harris Poll Youth EquiTrend Computer Brand of the Year, followed by Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and Dell.

Mobile Phone (13-24): Apple’s iPhone is the 2012 Harris Poll Youth EquiTrend Mobile Phone Brand of the Year. HTC phones, Samsung phones, and LG phones follow in rank order.

Computer Tablet (13-24): Again Apple tops the list. iPad is the 2012 Harris Poll Youth EquiTrend Computer Tablet Brand of the Year. Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry PlayBook, and Samsung Galaxy round out the brands that rank above category average.

Video Gaming Platform (8-24): Among all youth, the Nintendo Wii is the 2012 Harris Poll Youth EquiTrend Video Gaming Platform Brand of the Year, followed by the Sony Playstation 3 and then the Nintendo DS.

Methodology

The Youth EquiTrend study evaluates measures including: Equity, Emotional Connection, and Brand Advocacy. The keystone to the program is Equity, which provides an understanding of a brand’s overall strength and is determined by a calculation of Familiarity, Quality, and Purchase Consideration.

This year’s Harris Poll Youth EquiTrend study was conducted online among 5,077 U.S. consumers ages 8-24 in August, 2011. A total of 121 brands were rated among 8-12 year olds and 167 brands among 13-24 year olds. Each 8-12 year old respondent was asked to rate a total of 15 randomly selected brands and each 13-24 year old respondent was asked to rate a total of 22 randomly selected brands. Each brand received at least 130 ratings. Data were weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. population of consumers ages 8-24 on the basis of age, sex, education, urbanicity (8-17 year olds) race/ethnicity, region, parental education (8-17 year olds) and income (18-24 year olds), and data from respondents ages 18 and over were also weighted for their propensity to be online.