For the past three years Apple has held the top spot in the
list of the most valuable global brands by market research firm Millward Brown.
But this year, the Cupertino company has been nudged from its laurels into the
second position.
Apple’s drop is said to have been caused by the company’s
slowdown in terms of introducing innovations and a considerable drop in
dramatic product launches it has been known for in the past.
So who now occupies the top spot on the list? If you guessed
Google, you’re right. The search giant’s thrust in new and innovative
technologies such as smart glasses, artificial intelligence and the continued
growth of Android has made the search giant the most valuable brand for 2014.
Other tech companies have also improved their rankings on
the list including social networking companies such as Facebook which is now at
the 21st spot, Twitter and LinkedIn who are at 71st and
78th spots respectively. Other tech companies included in the top 10
slots include IBM at 3rd place and Microsoft who jumped 3 spots up
from 7th place in 2013 to 4th place.
Aside from ranking, several of Apple’s key performance
indicators took a hit this year. On one hand, sales of its iPad tablet have
slowed down this year according to the company’s Q2 2014 financial report.
Compared to the same period last year, Apple only managed to sell 16.4 million
units of the iPad this year versus the 20 million units it has manage to sell
in 2013.
Lastly, total sales of its Mac line of laptops and desktop
computers has now been eclipsed by Lenovo according to data collected by the
IDC for last three months.
