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Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, reveals that Apple’s iPhone is the most searched for mobile phone in the UK. 11.4% of Internet searches for a specific mobile phone model were for the iPhone – based on analysis of the top 2,000 search terms that sent traffic to a Hitwise Custom Category, consisting of the top 100 online retail websites in the UK during the four weeks ending 20 October 2007.

For the four weeks ending 20 October 2007, Apple was the most searched for gadget brand in the UK, accounting for over a third of all gadget brand searches sending traffic to the top 100 retail websites. The iPod was the most popular Apple product, followed by the iPod Nano, the iPhone and newly launched iPod Touch. “Apple has an extremely strong brand in the UK, and this data illustrates that this is translating into searches that are sending traffic to retail websites in the run up to Christmas, commented Robin Goad, UK Research Director at Hitwise.

Nintendo is the second most searched for gadget brand, receiving 17.9% of all gadget searches sending traffic to retail sites in the UK. The success is primarily due to the Wii, which accounts for over half (53.3%) of all searches for games consoles in the UK. TomTom is the third most popular brand, highlighting the popularity of satellite navigation systems, which are the fifth most searched for gadget in the run up to Christmas after mobile phones, computers, games consoles and MP3 players.

Despite the iPhone being the most searched for individual mobile phone model, Nokia is the most searched for mobile phone brand overall in the UK, and its N95 multimedia phone is the second most searched for phone. The Sony Ericsson w580i is third most popular model, followed by the Samsung u600 and the Nokia 6300. "It is clear that high-end multimedia phones are what UK consumers are searching for in the run up to Christmas – both the iPhone and the N95 have advanced multimedia capabilities and 8 GB of media storage," commented Goad.

Although Nokia is the most searched for mobile phone brand in the UK with a 30.7% share, Sony Ericsson is a close second with 30.6%. Samsung is in third place with 22.2%, followed by Apple and LG. "Of the 43 phone models that we tracked in the top 2,000 search terms, 37 were manufactured by either by Nokia, Sony Ericsson or Samsung, which explains their dominance," commented Goad, "but now Apple has entered the market and is rapidly gaining ground on the top three. It will be interesting to see how its share of searches changes following the iPhone’s UK release on 9 November."