Apple is the world’s leading company in terms of market capitalization, reached to $ 619.92 billion figure today. According to brand consultancy firm—Interbrand—Apple is the world second-best brand after Coca-Cola. Apple’s brand value increased to $76.5 billion, a fastest year-over-year growth (129%) shown by any top 100 best global companies in the list. The brand consultancy firm has evaluated the brand value of all these companies on the basis of their financial performance of branded products or services, overall strength of the brand and the role of brand in purchase decision process.
In 2011, Apple finished the race with eight position, leapfrogged over other competitors. However, in 2009, the company was placed at 18 spots, but this time, it has grabbed second notch and it’s ahead of Intel, McDonald’s, GE, Google, Microsoft and IBM in terms of global brand value.
Interestingly, Apple has outperformed its biggest rival in mobile segment (Google), which is currently at fourth position with brand value of $69.7 billion, a 26% year-over-year rise. Among top five global brands, IBM is in third-position with brand value of $75.5 billion, while Microsoft is in fifth-place with $57.8 billion value, a two percent year-over-year decline in the brand value.
How Apple’s Growth Rate Could Decline ?
Almost a year before, after sad demise of Steve Jobs, there was a question around: Could Apple succeed without him? But, the upshot is quite obvious that it’s now the world leading company in market capitalization and second in terms of global brand value. As per current scenarios, it’s really very difficult to speculate that the company could ever decline. But, the turmoil inside the company at the top administration level is depicting something else.
Apple’s Co-founder—Steve Wozniak—said in its note, “There is always a danger. Apple could decline, but if it does, it may not be due to the loss of Steve Jobs. My personal opinion is that if it goes sour, it might have gone sour with Jobs there so conclusions should not be drawn. That is not constructive for Apple.”
Indeed, Apple is currently occupied with a series of bad commercials and it’s being lashed out for poor maps application on the iPhone 5. It’s true that the company’s market share value has reached to its all-time high, but perpetual complaints related to the application could change the mind of investors. Apple’s new iPhone also lacks NFC and is working on specific LTE band, means only limited numbers of operators could provide 4G LTE services to iPhone 5. Previously, Apple’s new iPad was lashed out in Australia and some parts of Europe for misguiding users for 4G compatibility. Apple’s TV is yet struggling to prove itself in the market. Astoundingly, Apple’s co-founder believes in some other reasons, that could hamper the growth of the company in upcoming years, rather than poor market campaigns or decline in market share.
In 1985, Steve Jobs left Apple and exactly after eleven years company reached to the worst stage . However, the present scenario is different from 80’s; At present, it’s at peak in terms of market valuation. In 80’s, the company was manufacturing just one product, but now, it’s more diversified and strong. Presently, if one of its products suffers, then it could recover damages from the profits of others. At present, Apple has iMac, iPod, Macbook, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV.
This time, lineups of high-end smartphones and Tablets are available in the market, besides in personal computer segment, it could face a fierce competition from Intel’s Ultrabook series. The climax has been changing since last couple of years and the competition has more intensified compare to 2007 or 2009.
Apple has just been harvesting crops, which Steve cultivated in his regime, since the last year . At present, a significant number of tech-geeks do not believe that iPhone 5 is an innovative product, it’s just improvised iPhone 4S. Really, the company needs to focus on the new categories of products and should think ‘out of box’ rather than patent litigation. Of Course, if the company will not emphasize on these fields, then definitely, its present market capitalization will be past.
Image credit: Interbrand
