HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2012: Reader's Choice Results
This year, a total of 138 brands were involved in the Reader's Choice polls to compete for the 37 Reader's Choice awards on hand. More than 155,000 votes later, here are the final results. Come on in and find out if your favorite brand won!
Tech Awards - Recognizing Excellence
Welcome to the 3rd annual HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards!
This year, 34 Editor’s Choice and 37 Reader’s Choice awards were given out by HWM and HardwareZone.com to recognize excellence of brands, products, and services in the computer, consumer electronics, digital entertainment, and communications sectors. The grand total of 71 awards is also two more than the 69 awards handed out this time last year.
For the Editor’s Choice awards, 159 products that were introduced between December 2010 and November 2011, and which fitted the stringent criteria set for the 34 categories were meticulously tested and benchmarked in the HWZ Labs by a 15-writer-strong editorial team throughout the course of last year. The nominees were selected in accordance to the benefits, value and significant technological advancements they have brought to consumers. To better reflect the ever-changing market trends, the Editor’s Choice categories continue to evolve, and now see the inclusion of new categories such as Best Tablet, Best Headphones and Best SOHO Color LED Multifunction Printer, among others.
For the Reader’s Choice awards, voting was opened to all the readers of HWM and HardwareZone.com. A total of 138 brands competed for the 37 Reader’s Choice awards available. Response was nothing short of overwhelming - more than 155,000 votes were cast over a period of just four weeks. This number is almost double of what we had last year, and many of the votes came from readers using their mobile devices. This high level of participation is certainly heartening, as it’s a strong indication that we’ve established a trustworthy name among the tech community.
The awards ceremony took place on 24th February at Mandarin Orchard Singapore. Here are the results for the Reader’s Choice awards; the Editor’s Choice results will follow in two separate articles in the coming week.
Reader's Choice Awards - Computing (Part 1)
Back in November 2011, we asked you - our intelligent and tech-savvy readers and members of the online community - for your favorite brands and services in 37 categories spanning the tech industry trinity of computing, communications, and consumer electronics. Your response was overwhelming, with more than 155,000 votes cast in total for the HWM+HardwareZone.com Tech Awards 2012 Reader's Choice. Here then are the results of this detailed survey; check out to see if your favorite brands won. For the more curious readers, you can also check out previous year's results.
Best Desktop CPU Brand - Intel
It's a runaway win for Intel in the desktop CPU category. The largest chip maker in the world also had its best year in history in 2011 with record-breaking operating results. Perhaps it's time to conquer the mobile processor market in 2012. |
Best Gaming Graphics Processor Brand - NVIDIA
While the past year had seen NVIDIAmaking a serious push into mobile computing (e.g. the quad-core Tegra 3), the company is still the kingpin of desktop GPU technology. Compared to last year, its share of votes has increased, from 67% to 72% this year. |
Best Graphics Card Brand - ASUS
Interestingly, ASUS has garnered the same percentage of votes this year versus last year: 37%. And this is the third straight year that the company has been voted the best graphics card brand. |
Best Motherboard Brand - ASUS
Also for the third year running, ASUS has won the Best Motherboard Brand; this time with more than half of all the votes. It's clear that ASUS' reputation for making reliable and high-quality boards hasn't gone unnoticed by the community. |
Best PC Memory Brand - Kingston
Best Desktop PC Brand - Apple
Apple has retained its crown that it has snatched from HP last year in the Best Desktop PC Brand category. Considering that Mac sales have outpaced the growth of the PC market for 23 consecutive quarters, it's perhaps not a surprise that the Mac's mind share is now at an all-time high around the world. |
Best Inkjet Printer Brand - Canon
With 44% of the total votes cast, Canon is once again the number one brand in the inkjet printer category. The company is one of the few printer makers that consistently refreshes its lineup and introduces new technology in its products, and these have undoubtedly kept its brand visibility high in the market. |
Best Laser Printer Brand - Hewlett-Packard
Last year, the race for the top laser printer brand was between Canon and HP; eventually, HPwon with 29% of the votes. This time round, it was a three-horse race between Canon, HP, and Fuji Xerox. At the end of the day, HP edges out the other two and retains its crown with 26% of the votes. Canon and Fuji Xerox garner 23% each. |
Best LED Printer Brand - Fuji Xerox
Fuji Xerox has long been a strong proponent of LED printing, and since a couple of years ago, the company has been aggressively bringing its award-winning S-LED print head technology into products targeted at home and SMB users. This has certainly paid off, as our voters had chosen it to be their number one LED printer brand. |
Best Wireless Networking Brand - Linksys by Cisco
Despite a drop in its share of votes compared to last year (32% vs 40%), Linksys by Cisco is still this year's winner for the Best Wireless Networking Brand award. D-Link, who was the runner-up last year, has to settle for second place again this year. Looks like it'd remain a tight race between the two for years to come. |
Best Antivirus/Internet Security Software Brand - Symantec
While the major players have remained the same, competition in the antivirus/Internet security software market has never been fiercer. At least ten brands figured in the votes, and with its 23% share, Symantec has managed to hold on to the award it has won last year. The second place goes to AVG, who has 19% of the votes. |
Best External HDD Brand - Western Digital
Western Digital and Seagate are the two largest hard drive makers in the world. The former is going to acquire Hitachi's HDD division, and the latter has already taken over Samsung's HDD business. For this year's Reader's Choice Awards, Western Digital has successfully defended its Best External HDD Brand title. |
Best Removable Flash Storage Brand - SanDisk
Flash memory card giant SanDisk has comfortably walked away again with the Best Removable Flash Storage Brand award, no doubt due to its impressive portfolio of flash (and other) products. Can anyone break its stronghold? |
Best NAS Brand - D-Link
The network-attached storage (NAS) category is once again a hotly contested category with no less than 12 brands involved. Last year's winner, D-Link, has emerged victorious again with 25% of the votes. Hot on its heels is Buffalo with 18%. |
Best LCD Monitor Brand - Samsung
The LCD monitor category is another category that involves a lot of players; at least 12 vendors were voted on by our readers. Despite the number, the winner has managed to garner more than 50% of the votes. Who is it then? It's none other than the biggest LCD panel maker (revenue-wise, at least) in the world, Samsung. |
Best PC Components Retailer (Singapore) - Fuwell
Sim Lim Square has always been the go-to place for DIY enthusiasts building their own systems, as this is the mall that gathers numerous PC components retailers under the same roof. For the third straight year, our readers had voted Fuwell as their favorite PC components retailer. PC Themes comes in second with 16%. |
Best Business Notebook Brand - Lenovo
It's a photo finish in the business notebook category. Lenovo (of ThinkPad and IdeaPad fame) has edged out Apple to win the award. It's surprising that users are increasingly looking at Apple for even business oriented machines that they clinched the second spot in this category. The difference in number of votes between the two is a mere 1%. HP and ASUS are tied for third place with 11% each. |
Best Gaming Notebook Brand - Dell/Alienware
For the uninitiated, Alienware is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dell, Inc., and it specializes in putting together high-performance desktops and notebooks for professional and gaming purposes. With that kind of street cred, it's no wonder our readers had once again voted it to be their favorite gaming notebook brand. ASUS comes in second with 31% of the votes, no doubt due to their Republic of Gamers (ROG) series. The two brands combined garner close to 80% mind share of the gaming notebook market - at the moment at least. |
Best Tablet Brand - Apple
What can we say? In a little less than two years, Apple has sold more than 55 million iPads. And if rumors were to be believed, very soon we'll see the iPad 3. Compared to last year's Reader's Choice results though, Apple's share of votes has dropped from 75% to 64%. Perhaps there were more Android tablet users voting this time round. |
Best Point & Shoot Digital Camera Brand - Canon
Canon has certainly delighted our readers with its range of IXUS and PowerShot cameras. After successive wins in the last two years (with 48% of the votes on both occasions), Canon has made a hat trick by capturing 52% in this year's polls. |
Best Mirrorless Camera Brand - Nikon
The 'mirrorless' interchangeable lens digital camera category is a new category that we set up last year to reflect a new type of camera that took the market by storm. Sony was the recipient of the Best Mirrorless Camera Brand award last year. This year however, the majority of the votes had gone to Nikon. Clearly, Nikon has done a good job spreading the good word of its Nikon 1 system. |
Best DSLR Camera Brand - Canon
When it comes to DSLRs, the top two makers are still Canon and Nikon, be it unit share, profit share, or mind share. For the second straight year, Canon has been voted the best DSLR camera brand by our readers. |
Best HD Camcorder Brand - Canon
Maybe it's the halo effect from Canon's exceedingly successful range of digital cameras, or maybe consumers just like the new stuff that Canon is trying to bring to the table with its Legria camcorders, but Canon has once again pipped the likes of Sony, JVC, and Panasonic to take home the Best HDCamcorder Brand award. |
Best GPS Brand - Garmin
Same as last year, readers had voted Garmin as the best GPS brand. With 64% of the votes this time round, it's hard to see how anyone can catch up in the near future. |
Best Consumer Electronics Megastore (Singapore) - Courts
Harvey Norman, a two-time winner for the Best CE Megastore award has ceded its crown to Courts this year. This is a big win for Courts, as it has been in third place for the last two years. Together with Best Denki, the three megastores received 84% of all votes cast. |
Best LCD TV Brand - Samsung
Unsurprisingly, the top LCD TV brand among our readers goes to Samsung. A top LCD panel maker, the Korean electronics giant has been dominating the TV segment for the past few years. It certainly doesn't hurt that its TVs are endowed with great designs and image quality. |
Best Plasma TV Brand - Samsung
Judging from the votes that we've received, the plasma TV market looks healthy and kicking strong. Sure, Sony, Philips, Toshiba, and Pioneer have abandoned this segment, but we're still seeing some spectacular products from those who remained. This time round, our readers had chosen Samsung as their favorite plasma TV maker. |
Best 3D TV Brand - Samsung
There's really no dispute of Samsung's dominance in the TV segment, for the company has picked up its third TV award for just this year. This time, it's for the best 3D TV brand. The second spot goes to Sony, but at a distant 18% of the votes. |
Best Business Projector Brand - NEC
Our voters preferred quite a variety of brands when it comes to business projectors; a total of 12 brands contested this time round. NEC with 15% of the votes has barely managed to stave off Canon, Epson, and InFocus (each with 14%) to pick up the award. It'd be interesting to see how this pans out next year. |
Best Home Theater Projector Brand - Sony
For home theater projectors, our voters favored Sony; about 35% of them voted for the Japanese consumer electronics giant. As far as we know, the company's VPL-HW30ES is well received in the market; and we wait in abated breath for the arrival of the VPL-VW1000ES 4K projector in our labs. |
Best Home Theater System Brand - Bose
Same as the previous year, Bose is voted the best home theater system brand. The percentage of votes it received (34%) is 2.5 times that of runner-up Pioneer (13%). |
Best Headphones Brand - Sennheiser
The headphones category is another new category we've set up this year to keep up with what's happening in the market, and after hearing feedback from the community. German audio company Sennheiser picks up the award with 24% of the votes. |
Best Pay TV Service (Singapore) - StarHub Cable
For the third year running, StarHub Cable TV is our readers' favorite local pay TV service, receiving a staggering 80% of the votes. |
Best Business Smartphone Brand - RIM (BlackBerry)
Research In Motion's BlackBerry continues to be the business smartphone of choice among our voters. For BlackBerry fans, 2012 is going to be an exciting year as BlackBerry 10 is slated to arrive later in the year. But with the increasing popularity of the iPhone in businesses, will the results look the same come this time next year? |
Best Lifestyle Smartphone Brand - Apple
The plethora of Android smartphones from various vendors in 2011 is probably one reason for the 7% drop in the share of votes for Apple, but the iPhone maker still garners 59% of the votes. This is the third year in a row that Apple has won the Best Lifestyle Smartphone Brand award. |
Best Mobile Operator (Singapore) - SingTel
SingTel remains the market leader for mobile services in Singapore, and the votes reflected this with 56% choosing the red of SingTel over the other two telcos. |
Best Internet Service Provider (Singapore) - SingNet
With 47% of the votes, SingNet is once again our voters' preferred Internet service provider. We wonder if its 2% increase in votes compared to last year came from its new fiber broadband users. |
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.