Apple. The brand is worth $153 billion and this year tops uber brandname Google, according to a new survey. The Mountain View, Calif. company, which topped the list in 2010, slipped to second place to $111 billion.
“Apple earned an 84 percent increase in brand value with successful iterations of existing products like the iPhone, creation of the tablet category with iPad, and anticipation of a broadened strategy making the brand a trifecta of cloud computing, software, and innovative, well-designed devices,” announced Branz, a subsidiary of advertising giant WPP.
The Cupertino, Calif. tech giant beat out such well-known brands as Coca-Cola ($78 billion), Disney ($17.2 billion) and Microsoft ($78 billion). Other technology powerhouses also ranked below Apple. PC manufacturing leader HP listed in No. 18. PC maker Dell dropped from the list while embattled cell-phone giant Nokia lost 28 percent of it’s brand value.
The survey also predicts a much-rumored “cloud” computing tactic would create a “trinity of platform, content and device,” further increasing the company’s brand value.
Although Apple made the fifth-largest gain since 2010, jumping 84 percent in this year’s Branz survey, social-networking phenom Facebook’s brand value recorded an explosive 246 percent increase to $19 billion.