Last week we reported that the Nintendo Wii Fit video game is currently the most searched for product in the UK. In that post we also identified the Apple iPhone as the third most searched for product, followed by the Nokia N96 in fourth position. As the table below illustrates, during October mobile phones were the most searched for category of consumer electronic products in the UK, receiving over twice the volume of searches as video games, and three times that of computers.

The iPhone accounted for 5.8% of all mobile phone searches during October, and its popularity helped Apple achieve the accolade of being the most searched for consumer electronics brand in the UK last month. However, the so called ‘iPhone killers’ are tracking closely behind, with the Nokia N96, Sony Ericsson C905 and Samsung Omnia all increasing their share of searches in October. The popularity of Nokia’s N96, combined with the Finnish giant’s large back catalogue of phones, enabled the company to maintain its standing as the most popular mobile phone brand online, and 2nd overall brand behind Apple.

Sony Ericsson sits as the second most popular mobile phone brand, with three strong models in the top ten – including the recently launched Xperia X1. Samsung, the third most popular mobile brand online, has three models in the top ten. The HTC T-Mobile G1 (Google Phone), which launched in the UK the same week as the Xperia X1, was the 17th most searched for phone in the UK in October.

Robin Goad

Robin Goad is Research Director, Hitwise UK. This piece was originally published on Hitwise analyst blog here. 

Image by robinhamman