Apple, Toshiba and Canon ranked highest in an Internet survey conducted among over 40,000 Japanese consumers older than 16 years between October 2007 and March 2008. The results (based on customer satisfaction) were released yesterday by marketing research company GfK Marketing Services Japan.

People in this country gave excellent grades to Apple in the field of laptops, desktop PCs and – you guessed it – portable music players. Japanese consumers apparently like the design of Apple products and also cited compatibility to Windows as a reason for their choice.

Toshiba scored the highest points for their flat-screen TVs (picture quality and pricing). Hitachi and Sharp were second and third.

Canon secured the top spot in the field of digital cameras and digital video cameras. Nikon was first for digital single-lens reflex cameras.