Apple has been awarded the Harris Interactive Brand of the Year in the three different categories in the research firm's latest ranking of brands based on surveys of US consumers. Harris Interactive annually publishes data based on market place perception across a number of product categories.This year, Apple takes home the top spot in the computer, tablet and mobile phone categories, according to the data gathered from over 40,000 Americans.

This year's study surveyed individuals age 15 and above on 1511 brands across 155 different categories. It asked participants to rate brands based on several factors, including: Familiarity, Quality, Purchase Consideration, Trust, Performance, Ubiquity, Future Outlook and Popularity, among others.

HTC, Samsung and LG were the runners up in the Mobile Phone Brand of the Year category, with the Kindle Fire series and HP coming in second in the tablet and computer categories, respectively.

According to Harris Interactive's Senior Vice President Manny Flores, Apple's continued success and popularity in these categories doesn't seem to be slowing based on its current Brand Momentum numbers:

"Americans continue to give Apple brands strong ratings...And while their Consumer Connection scores are strong within their respective categories, what really stands out is that in all three of the categories Apple brands are measured - Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phone - its Brand Momentum scores are in the top 30 of all 1,500 brands evaluated in the study, showing that consumers see this as a brand of the future."

Back in February, Harris put Apple as being considered to have the best overall image among American Corporations in 2012, while being a close second behind Amazon as the most reputable. Now, after Tim Cook's first full year at the helm, Apple's Mac, iPad and iPhone product lines have topped the likes of Google, Samsung, Dell, HP, Amazon and HTC.