Apple in seventh heaven as it heads Forbes most valuable brands list yet again
Apple has extended its dominance of Forbes annual list of the world’s most valuable brands after appearing at the top of the tree for the seventh year on the trot with a value of $170bn, a 10% increase on its total for 2016.
Apple in seventh heaven as it heads Forbes most valuable brands list yet again
Firmly ensconced at the top spot Apple easily saw off its nearest challengers in the form of Google which ranked a distant second at $101.8bn, although the gap is closing somewhat with Google improving its position by 23% since the year prior.
Forbes senior editor Kurt Badenhausen remarked: “Technology brands continue to rank as the most valuable in the world with nine of the top 15. Apple’s premium brand produces an average selling price of nearly $700 for its iPhones and helps the company generate more than 80% of industry smartphone profits.”
Familiar faces Microsoft ($87bn); Facebook ($73.5bn) and Coca-Cola ($56.4bn), rounded out the top five.
This year’s list closed in on the $2tn mark with a cumulative value of $1.95tn with the biggest rising stars all benefiting from double digit year-on-year growth; namely Amazon (54%), Facebook (40%), Starbucks (24%), Google (23%) and Adobe (18%).
It wasn’t good news across the board however with IBM, HSBC and Caterpillar contracting by 20%, 18% and 11% respectively while some big players, such as Volkswagen, Thomson Reuters and Canon, dropped out of the list completely.
Forbes ranked over 200 global brands by charting the previous three years of earnings to which it allocated a percentage based on that brands perceived role in each industry, with a final brand value generated by applying a price to earnings multiple over the past three years to these earnings.