With its seemingly endless parade of shiny new consumer electronic devices, Apple gets more coverage in the mainstream media than any other technology company, more even than larger rivals such as Google and Microsoft, a study released on Sunday by the Pew Research Center states.

And the coverage is largely positive. About 69 percent of the coverage either lauded Apple as innovative or superior, or praised the company's fan base, while only about 17 percent of the coverage focused on the shortcomings of Apple products.

The researchers studied 437 technology related stories across 52 news outlets, including newspapers, television networks, radio programs and news websites. The samples were taken between June 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010. Trade publications and news sites, such as those offered by IDG, were not examined.

Overall,15.1 percent of all technology stories on these outlets focused primarily on Apple. About 11.4 percent focused on Google, 7.1 percent on Twitter, and 4.8 percent on Facebook.

Trailing the pack is Microsoft, which despite its launch of Windows 7 and Office 2010 during this time period, garnered only 3 percent of the coverage.

More: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=3241290