Apple Inc has maintained its place as the world’s most valuable brand over the past year, leading a group of technology-related companies that dominate the top 10, according to a study published yesterday.
The iPhone and iPad maker has boosted its brand value by 19 percent in the past year to US$183 billion, or 37 percent of its market capitalization, according to the annual BrandZ study by leading brands and market-research agency Millward Brown.
Facebook, with a market value of US$82 billion after its initial public offering last week, was the fastest climber in the top 100, seeing its brand value rise by 74 percent to US$33.2 billion to put it in 19th place.
Seven of the top 10 were -technology-related firms, although McDonald’s and Coca-Cola kept their respective No. 4 and No. 6 rankings.
Marlboro moved up a notch to seventh place despite anti--smoking campaigns in much of the world.
Nick Cooper, managing -director of Millward Brown Optimor, which produced the study, said the strength of technology brands was a measure of the central and transformative role technology plays in contemporary life.
“It’s all pervading and there’s a lot of excitement and new news,” Cooper said. “This is where it’s all happening. That tends to increase not only the demand and financial performance, but also the role of brand.”
Millward Brown, part of global advertising group WPP, takes as its starting point the financial value of the company or the part of the company that produces the brand and combines it with the brand’s ability to create loyalty.
“When cars first appeared or when air travel first appeared, they became liberating. It’s the turn of the technology sector at the moment,” Cooper said.
Business technology brands also featured prominently in the top 10, with IBM switching places with Google to rise to second place. Microsoft kept its position at No. 5.
Cooper said the so-called consumerization of information technology, in which business hardware and software makers increasingly have to come up to the standards that consumers are used to in their private lives, played a role.
“The brands that are generally demonstrating the best growth are those that tend to be occupying spaces where there is a lot more intuitive natural use, where the consumer experience is informing the B2B experience rather than the other way around,” he said.
Mobile phone brands AT&T, at No. 8 and Verizon, at No. 9, followed by China Mobile (中國移動), completed the top 10.
However, some technology brands were vulnerable to public opinion swinging against them, especially over emotive issues such as privacy, where Facebook and Google have already suffered a backlash for gathering large amounts of user data, he said.
“Consumer technology is receiving the same kind of scrutiny once reserved for banks, and brands will have to respond convincingly to increasing regulatory oversight. This may impact social brands like Facebook in the future,” he said.
Cooper added that Apple’s increasing its brand value despite the death of visionary Apple founder Steve Jobs in the past year was extraordinary.
“They are catchable, but they’ve either got to falter or someone else has got to put on a sprint,” he said.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS