NPD: Apple top electronics brand of 2011

According to new data from The NPD Group, Apple was the top consumer electronics (CE) brand in the U.S. in 2011, based on revenue. As noted in a press release, Apple was the only company in the top five to see a sales increase, posting a 36 percent rise over 2010, besting Hewlett-Packard, which came in second place and saw sales decline three percent, and Samsung, which came in third on a sales decline of six percent. Sony and Dell rounded out the top five, seeing sales declines of 21 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Notably, Apple accounted for 19 percent of all sales dollars in the fourth quarter, meaning almost one of every five dollars spent on consumer electronics during the holiday quarter in the U.S. went to the Cupertino-based company. The company was also the third-largest CE retailer by revenue in the U.S. in 2011, behind only Best Buy and Walmart, and ahead of Staples and Amazon.