APPLE HAS OVERTAKEN Google to become the world’s most valuable brand, according to the latest in a series of annual global studies.
Millward Brown’s BrandZ Rankings for 2011 show that the value of the Cupertino-based tech company grew by an estimated 84 per cent in the past twelve months, with the increased penetration of the iPhone and iPad driving its value to €106.3bn ($153.3bn).
That mammoth surge saw Apple overtake the longtime leader, search engine Google, whose value fell by around 2 per cent leaving it at €77.3bn.
IBM ranked third, with a value of just under €70bn, while McDonalds took fourth place ahead of Microsoft.
Apple’s continued spiralling value underlines the company’s revived fortunes of the last few years; FT reports that in the first BrandZ rankings, compiled in 2006, Apple’s brand value was around €11.3bn. Its value has increased by around 859 per cent in the intervening five years.
Apple’s brand value is almost half of its total market capitalisation, which stood at €221.4bn at the time of publication. Google’s valuation of €119.3bn was around 35 per cent higher than its brand value.
Another sign of the global clamour for Apple-branded merchandise came from Beijing overnight, when shoppers clashed with Apple Store employees in the scramble to pick up the latest white edition of the iPhone 4.
An Apple spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that the group of shoppers “became unruly” and employees had been force to close the shop for several hours to “protect themselves and our customers”. One of the main doors of the shop was shattered in the melee.
The white edition of the latest iPhone, which costs 4,999 yuan (€534) for the 16GB model, has already begun appearing on the black markets priced at closer to €600.
The scramble to pick up a white iPhone overshadowed the Chinese launch of the WiFi edition of the iPad 2, which launched in China on Friday but which has failed to prompt the same feverish demand.
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