Fortune: Apple Is This Year’s Most Admired Company In The World

Fortune has recently published its latest list of the most admired companies across the globe, and like how it fared last year, Apple comfortably owns the number one spot. It is interesting to note that the last twelve months have not been smooth sailing for the tech giant. While its current iPhone 7 models are impressive smartphone devices in their own right, they were pretty “standard” compared to past releases. And despite its tremendous influence on the industry and culture, even the mighty Apple can not persuade consumers to buy more tablet devices. Still, Apple remains the king of the world, or at least according to Fortune.

Behind Apple is Amazon, which is continuing proof that in this day and age, one can frequently find tech firms at the very top. Alphabet (the parent company of Google) has captured the number six spot, while Facebook and Microsoft share the number nine sport. But wait -- where is Samsung? After landing on the number 35 spot last year, the South Korean phone maker can not even crack the top fifty this year.

There is no doubt that the highly publicized recall and subsequent discontinuation of one of its supposed flagship devices, the Galaxy Note 7 phablet, had plenty to do with Samsung’s dive in the rankings last year. An overheating smartphone is always bad news for any phone maker, and last year, it had to happen to a high profile handset release from a very big mobile brand. How could Samsung’s reputation not take a hit?

To Samsung’s credit, it has not backed down from the controversy, and even went as far as disclosing the cause of its Galaxy Note 7’s issues (albeit the company did so patiently), and then expressing renewed commitment to get it right moving forward. This 2017 should give the South Korean mobile manufacturer adequate opportunity to get some of its lost mojo. But in order to do that successfully, it simply can not afford to deal with another incendiary scandal on its hands. 

In creating its reputation rankings, Fortune reached out to 3,800 executives, directors, and securities analysts. Others may notice that no consumers seemed to be involved in making the list. But what if they were? Would it have made a difference? Especially for Samsung? We may never know, but for now, Samsung will have to take all of it, and turn it into fuel to get back to its dominating days.