Apple Recaptures Title Of Most Valuable Brand In The World

The Apple brand is back at the top. At least according to a report called the BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands recently published by advertising firm WPP and market research firm Millward Brown. This report aims to rank the top brands of the world according to their value based on a combination of market data and surveys from customers. 

As expected in the age of personal computers and mobile devices, technology companies did really well as suggested by the number of tech-based establishments present in the list. And the best among this year's best is Apple. WPP and Millward Brown puts the company's brand value at $247 billion this year, an improvement of 67 percent compared to that of last year. 

The iPhone making tech giant is not actually a stranger to being on top -- it had held the number one spot before Google surpassed it last year. But this year, Apple has definitely recaptured its throne. As explained by Millward Brown, much of Apple's success is credited to the recent release of its two new flagship devices, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, which went on to become two of the best selling smartphones of all time. Moreover, Apple took advantage of the momentum in introducing the Apple Watch this year, which several industry watchers believe will galvanize the entire wearable device industry.

As for second place Google, it did not have a bad year either. Achieving a brand value of $173 billion, the search giant managed to improve by 9 percent compared to that of last year. The company certainly has been busy in the last few months launching a new version of its highly popular Android mobile operating system, introducing self driving automobiles, and even announcing its own wireless service, Project Fi.

On third place is Microsoft which scored a brand value of $115 billion, which is a 28 percent improvement over last year. Sitting comfortably at fourth place is IBM, with a brand value of $93 billion, although this value is down 13 percent compared to that of last year.

In case you are wondering how other well known brands fared -- social media giant Facebook is at the number 12 spot with a $71 billion brand value, although it can brag that among all brands in the list, Facebook is the only who scored a 99 percent increase in brand value.

Other technology related companies present in the list include AT&T ($89 billion), Verizon Wireless ($86 billion), Amazon ($62 billion), Vodafone ($38 billion), and SAP ($38 billion). To see the full report, you can go check it out here.