Bad news for Apple as it's overtaken by Google in the 2014 BrandZ Top 100.
What's the world's most valuable brand? For the past three years it's been Apple, according to the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brand ranking, an annual study commissioned by WPP and conducted by Millward Brown Optimor. But as of today there's a new top brand in town, and it's Google.
Google is now the world's most valuable brand, worth $149 billion
While Apple's brand value has slipped by 20 per cent to $148 billion, Google's has shot up by 40 per cent, giving it a brand value - calculated from financial data as well as the views of potential and current buyers of a brand - of $149 billion, edging it into the No 1 spot and pushing Apple into second place.
"Google has been hugely innovative in the last year with Google Glass, investments in artificial intelligence and a multitude of partnerships that see its Android operating system becoming embedded in other goods such as cars," says Millward Brown Optimor's managing director, Nick Cooper. "All of this activity sends a very strong signal to consumers about what Google is about and it has coincided with a slowdown at Apple."
Not even the mighty Mac Pro could keep Apple in the top spot
The full BrandZ Top 100 chart and report are available to download now from Millward Brown Optimor; if you're at all interested in what makes a successful brand you should definitely check them out.
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Jim McCauley is a writer, performer and cat-wrangler who started writing professionally way back in 1995 on PC Format magazine, and has been covering technology-related subjects ever since, whether it's hardware, software or videogames. A chance call in 2005 led to Jim taking charge of Computer Arts' website and developing an interest in the world of graphic design, and eventually led to a move over to the freshly-launched Creative Bloq in 2012. Jim now works as a freelance writer for sites including Creative Bloq, T3 and PetsRadar, specialising in design, technology, wellness and cats, while doing the occasional pantomime and street performance in Bath and designing posters for a local drama group on the side.
