By Patrick Avenell

In an industry where product reputation is highly important, Sharp can now boast that they are the world’s foremost entertainment electronics brand when it comes to public and business perception. The Japanese company led the pack in this industry in the Reputation Institute’s Global 200 report, as published in Forbes magazine.

The overall top three were Toyota, Google and IKEA, but it was the electronics and computer companies that dominate the list. Sharp were 16th overall, with a percentage improvement of 4.85 per cent from last.

Other consumer electronics companies that are held in good stead by the community are Matsushita, makers of Panasonic (28); Philips (31) and Sony (38) and Fuji (62).

Well known computer manufacturers to have made the list include Apple (63), HP (66), Intel (67), Dell (82) and IBM (108). Ubiquitous software manufacturers Microsoft’s reputation is clearly not as strong, with their score dropping 2.4 per cent, leaving the company languishing in 137th place.

Also not scoring well are Motorola (170), Nokia (177), Fujitsu (194) and Samsung (196).

The only Australian company to make the list was Qantas, which was placed at number 117. The full list is available here.