Retail
HOW TECH TASTES ARE SHIFTING
YouGov’s latest consumer electronics rankings reveal a market where brand power, value perceptions and generational identity collide, and the winners aren’t always who you’d expect.
T
he UK’s relationship with technology is becoming more nuanced, more segmented and, in many ways, more surprising. YouGov’s UK Consumer Electronics Rankings
2026 paints a picture of a nation that still gravitates toward the big names, but not always for the reasons you might expect. Justin Marshall, Head of Digital, Media and Tech (UK), said in the report: “The landscape of consumer electronics continues to transform at an unprecedented pace,” and the data backs him up as the brands people consider, and the ones they believe offer true value, increasingly and quickly diverge. What emerges is a portrait of a tech market defined by contrasts:
aspiration versus pragmatism, youth versus legacy, and ecosystems versus individual products.
Mobile The mobile category remains the clearest example of brand gravity. iPhone sits at the top of the consideration table with 40.4%, just ahead of Samsung at 38.8%. The gap between these two and the rest of the field is enormous: Sony trails at 15.6%, Google Pixel at 14.6%, and Motorola at 6.0%. But the demographic splits tell a richer story. Men lean towards
Samsung (42.0%) while women lean towards iPhone (42.7%). And the generational divide is even sharper: Gen Z overwhelmingly favours Apple (53.5%), while Gen X and Baby Boomers put
6 | March/April 2026
Samsung first (39.6% and 39.0% respectively). It’s a reminder that Apple’s cultural dominance is generationally concentrated, while Samsung’s appeal is broader and more evenly distributed. Yet when the conversation shifts from consideration to value, the
hierarchy flips. Xiaomi, which is barely visible in the top five consideration list, dominates the value rankings with a net score of 55.6. OnePlus follows at 50.8, and Oppo and Google Pixel also outperform the big two. Samsung appears in fifth place (33.2), and Apple doesn’t appear at all. It’s a striking contrast, which implies that the brands people dream
of buying are not the same brands they believe deliver the best return for money. In a cost sensitive economy, that gap matters.
Home office and computing Move beyond phones, and the picture becomes more eclectic. In the home office and computing category, Samsung emerges as the most considered brand at 48.2%, ahead of Apple (38.7%) and Sony (29.6%). It’s a category where breadth matters: monitors, laptops, tablets, peripherals and hybrid devices all contribute to brand visibility, and Samsung’s portfolio gives it a natural advantage. Gender differences are subtle but telling. Men show higher
consideration for Sony (34.5%) and Microsoft (25.3%), while women lean slightly more toward HP and Canon. But both groups agree on the top two: Samsung first, Apple second.
www.pcr-online.biz
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
