Apple edges out Google as the world's most valuable brand for the fourth consecutive year

[midian182]

Its smartphone sales may be slipping, the iPhone 7 has been criticized for looking overly similar to last year’s model (and having no 3.5mm headphone jack), and analysts predict it will sell fewer smartwatches this year than in 2015. But despite all this, Apple has been named the most valuable brand in the world for the fourth year in a row.

Brand consultancy firm Interbrand placed Apple at number one with a brand valuation of $178.1 billion, a five percent increase from last year. Rival Google sits behind the Cupertino company with a brand valuation of $133.2 billion, eleven percent higher than in 2015.

Technology companies take up ten of the top twenty places on the list. Microsoft sits behind Coca-Cola in fourth place with a $72.7 billion brand value, up eight percent over the last 12 months. Further down the top ten is IBM; it may have dropped nineteen percent from last year, but the industry giant's $52.5 billion brand value places it at number six.

A fourteen percent increase in 2016 puts Samsung beneath IBM at number seven with a brand value of $51.8 billion, while Amazon, which saw its stock pass the $800 milestone for the first time last month, is at number eight. The online retailer's brand value increased a massive 33 percent this year to $50.3 billion.

The other tech firms in the top 20 are Intel at fourteen ($36 billion, +4 percent), Facebook at fifteen ($32.5 billion, +48 percent), Cisco at sixteen ($30.9 billion, +4 percent), and Oracle at seventeen ($26.5 billion, -3 percent).

Two companies have joined the list this year: Tesla at number 100 ($4 billion) and Dior at 89 ($4.9 billion).

Facebook and Amazon experienced the biggest growth in brand value across 2016 – 48 percent and 33 percent, respectively.

Writing about Apple’s success, Interbrand noted: “Apple shows how ecosystems drive value. Analysts have often pointed out that ‘Apple has superior products.’ While true, this opinion undersells the brilliance of Apple’s functionally- integrated model. Its software, hardware, and touchpoints are connected not just by beautiful design aesthetics, but by a level of interoperability that justifies the Apple premium and discourages defections to another platform. And the more data you share, the more personal it becomes— adding new devices is painless and the thought of switching increasingly unpromising. Apple is the Alpha of Cohesiveness in full effect.”

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https://www.techspot.com/news/66571-apple-edges-out-google-world-most-valuable-brand.html

 

[amstech]

I got nothing against Apple, great company with products so simple and uniform anyone from your 4 year old to your grandma can use them, but superior? Superior image, superior popularity, Superior resale value maybe.

Analysts have often pointed out that ‘Apple has superior products.’

Easier to use? Yes.
Innovative? Yes.
Superior? Lol, no.

While true,

This is an opinion.

this opinion undersells the brilliance of Apple’s functionally- integrated model. Its software, hardware, and touchpoints are connected not just by beautiful design aesthetics, but by a level of interoperability that justifies the Apple premium and discourages defections to another platform.

Everything has interoperability, Apple narrows your choices down and makes it easier for users in thier enviroment, at a cost of features and freedom you have with other devices.
Thier worth has all to do more with their image and popularity and little to do with their products.
Apple's products are decent, not great, not bad.

beautiful design aesthetics,

No other phone looks as good as an iPhone I guess huh? Lol.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I'm not sure of this "apple having superior hardware" talk. The iphones do tend to get worse signal then plastic android phones do, some models have issues, such as the iphone 6 screen debacle, the iphone 5s's battery issues, ece.

What apple is really good about is the ecosystem. iOS apps are more optimized by virtue of having fewer OSes and fewer hardware platforms to target. 5 years of system updates blows android out of the water. And consistently having superior SoC performance on top of iOS optimizations only further widens the performance gap.

That software, and by extension the user experience, is what gives apple it's good name.

 

[SirDigby]

I don't understand how these values are calculated?
Is it shareprice * number of shares sold? O.o

 

[ForgottenLegion]

Where is Apple based?
I don't think it's ever mentioned in any of the Apple articles.
You should definitely say it in every single article even if you don't mention where any of the others are based because that makes sense and is much quicker/more efficient and really isn't annoying.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

GOOGLE / Android has expanded so far...

I'm an Apple iPhone loyalist and I love their products, but even I'll admit they aren't as necessary to the Global Market as Google is. Google's got its fingers in everything. Especially when you factor in GMAIL, Google's MS-Word-like services (free to use), Google Traffic, Maps, and all the other applications they have globally.

Time Cook is mentally ill (he admitted it) and the stuff apple's been putting out lately have serious design flaws in my opinion. Not sure what the tech market will be like in 5 years, but I've got more faith in Google than Apple.

 

[mbrowne5061]

...Google's MS-Word-like services (free to use)...

Microsoft also lets anyone use Office Online for free as well, and frankly, it works much better than Google Docs in terms of both functionality and collaboration.