News - Apple topples Google as world’s most valuable brand

[HEXUS]

Has increased in value by 859 percent since 2006.

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[Singh400]

The bubble will burst soon. Steady growth is key, not massive growth. You can't sustain massive growth.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Out of interest is this an estimated or actual value??

Not surprising that Apple has gone ahead of Google as they also much more hardware too(Google is primary a software company with nearly half the employees of Apple and even then a lot of the software is free too).

However,Google leaving China did affect it in 2010 though.

Having said that Walmart is the biggest company worldwide in terms of revenue and has much bigger cash reserves than Apple. There are Oil companies such as Exxon which have made very good profits(30 billion alone last year).

[TooNice]

^ Hmm, I stopped following the drama since last summer when the Chinese government renewed Google's ICP license, and Google.cn appears to work. Am I missing anything? It's worth noting that Baidu has always been ahead of Google in China as a search engine.

I'd take brand valuation with a large pinch of salt. It's probably like trying to establish the richest people in the world, the top few can easy switch places depending on the methodology used and I am quite sure that no methodology covers the whole things.

I don't think the "value" of a brand is necessarily to do with the revenue or cash reserve, but more to do with the "appeal" so to speak. All things being equal, would a Apple / Google branded mundane product sell for more than Walmart? Not unlikely. Granted, they wouldn't want to go too mundane as it would dilute the brand if they can't market the product properly (even Apple will struggle convincing that their broom is really so much more awesome than Tesco value).