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This list is about as expected. How is anyone shocked by this list? How are people surprised coke had topped the list the past 13 years? Coke is one of the most valuable brand names in the world. In terms of Coke v. Pepsi it really isn't even a competition. Coke dominates, especially in foreign markets. You can go anywhere in the world and say the word Coke and it is instantly recognized.

Google offers tons of very well rated services. Gmail, Google Voice, Chrome, Google Drive are all things I use on a daily basis. Further, as one person pointed out their mapping is unparalleled. Google is strongly associated with the internet. I'm surprised NIKE isn't in the top 10. They have a very valuable brand name as well. In fact, I think Jobs really admired NIKE as a company. I may be wrong about that though.
 
YEAH IBM!!

The brand everyone knows but knows nothing about, not sure how they manage this :confused:

When I was a kid in the 90s, people used to refer to all x86 PCs as: IBM-compatible PCs. I think IBM is still living on that distinction, even though they sold their hardware business to Lenovo almost 10 years ago and now only do consulting (i.e. no longer a household brand).

BTW, my experience with their consultants: They suck
 
Number 6 on that list is General Electric -- and that's a company that nobody outside of the US has ever heard of. I only recognized their logo because I've lived in the US for a bit over a year, but I've NEVER seen it again in Europe. So how can GE be one of "the WORLD'S(!) most valuable brands"? I can imagine that they're big in the US, but they're a no show over here.
 
The only thing I can think of is if it takes into account the value of the subsidiary brands. GE owns NBC/Universal and has their hands in quite a bit of stuff ranging from jet engines to GE Healthcare and medical devices.
 
Number 6 on that list is General Electric -- and that's a company that nobody outside of the US has ever heard of. I only recognized their logo because I've lived in the US for a bit over a year, but I've NEVER seen it again in Europe. So how can GE be one of "the WORLD'S(!) most valuable brands"? I can imagine that they're big in the US, but they're a no show over here.

Anyone with at least a bit of business education knows GE. It's mainly a B2B business and is well known in that segment. Most consumers including you use GE derived products or services. GE is huge all over the world including Germany. It is a supplier for the ICE trains for example next to Siemens. It was (and maybe still is) one of the world's largest businesses.

In business circles GE is one of the prime examples to structure and to maintain a diversified business. Jack Welch (previous CEO of GE) is one of the most studied CEO's in the world, even more than Steve Jobs.
 
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Number 6 on that list is General Electric -- and that's a company that nobody outside of the US has ever heard of. I only recognized their logo because I've lived in the US for a bit over a year, but I've NEVER seen it again in Europe. So how can GE be one of "the WORLD'S(!) most valuable brands"? I can imagine that they're big in the US, but they're a no show over here.

Well, in my country GE has various factories, and is widely known as a light bulb manufacturer.
 
IBM ranked higher than Microsoft.
That seems strange.

Nice that Apple is #1!

The world's most valuable company is not in the top-10: Exxon Mobil.

Apple has been the most valuable company for most of this year. They took the top spot back from XOM a long time ago. Where have you been?

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Making fun of "Apple is doomed" has become the new "Safari seems snappier" or "Steve would never have done that." Am I the only one who thinks this is starting to get repetitive?

No, you are not the only one. I'm really tired of the "rotten apple" and "i" quips that so-called professional journalists keep using for article headlines. The idea of "been there, done that" is in full force here. Can't they come up with something more original than those tired old memes?
 
They want exactly the same thing that Apple wants: To take as much money out of your pocket as possible, and to give it to the Hedge Funds and Mutual Funds.

Sugar water and hunks of plastic/aluminum are just a means to this end.

You're reading too much into my quote, it's a little humour based on something Steve Jobs said to John Sculley, "Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
 
This surprises me. Coke is a known brand in Africa (in a bad way), whilst I doubt many people know of Apple or Google there, at least in developing countries. Coca Cola is ripping away water and land for factories there. Apple doesn't have anything there. Nor does Google.
 
I dunno, I've never met anyone IRL who preferred Pepsi over Coke. At restaurants and cafés or wherever everyone would always ask for a coke, sometimes being met with "is Pepsi okay?".
No, it wasn't okay!

From Wikipedia
According to Beverage Digest's 2008 report on carbonated soft drinks, PepsiCo's U.S. market share is 30.8 percent, while The Coca-Cola Company's is 42.7 percent.[23] Coca-Cola outsells Pepsi in most parts of the U.S., notable exceptions being central Appalachia, North Dakota, and Utah. In the city of Buffalo, New York, Pepsi outsells Coca-Cola by a two-to-one margin.[24]
Overall, Coca-Cola continues to outsell Pepsi in almost all areas of the world. However, exceptions include Oman; India; Saudi Arabia; Pakistan (Pepsi has been a dominant sponsor of the Pakistan cricket team since the 1990s); the Dominican Republic; Guatemala; the Canadian provinces of Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island; and Northern Ontario.[25]
Pepsi had long been the drink of Canadian Francophones and it continues to hold its dominance

Pepsi-Cola is a proud US multi-billion dollar, multi-national company with over a 100 year history
 
IBM is higher than Microsoft on this list but go to any pro-Microsoft forum and suggest MS would be more successful if they were more like IBM and not Apple and you get laughed off the forum. Microsoft has never been a hardware company. In Bill Gates mind, hardware was a cheap commodity and it was all about software. Not sure why they think getting deeper into the hardware business makes sense.


AH!
Denial keeps them sane.
 
It's not brand recognition, it's brand value.

If all IBM's assets were to magically burn down overnight, there would still be banks lining up to lend the company money the very next day. That based solely on the value of the brand, its ability to inspire trust. In IBM's case, that's 100% in the corporate market, to be sure. But even if the company came down from unchallenged king of everything IT, a title it help for something around 3 decades (60s. 70s and 80s), it still holds a lot of power in the corporate market. Much, much more than Apple or Google, definitely.

This ...

And for another data point in the powerhouse that is IBM -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_top_United_States_patent_recipients

Check out who is #1 EVERY year.
 
Apple as the most valuable brand... but how long for? (Not to mean this negatively, as some fanboys will probably think)

Honestly, if I had say, shares in Coca-Cola, I would still keep them regardless. Ignoring their sleazy tactics, Coca-Cola will always sell, where as Apple may rise or fall depending on the future. Sure you can make a decent amount of money holding shares from Apple, I sure as hell would if I could afford it. For those of you who think Apple might not fall, remember, the same was said about Microsoft a decade ago. Things can and will change, but what happens is yet to be seen.
 
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