Quick, name the two hottest brands in the United States. If you picked Apple and Google you'd be wrong.
Although the iPhone maker and Android creator dominate the smartphone industry, the companies have dropped from the list of hot brand names.
By contrast, Amazon and YouTube made the current list of the top 10 hottest US brands for mid-year 2013. In another surprise, basement-dwelling BlackBerry was named the most-improved technology brand - thanks to the new Z10...
You might have thought all the punishment Apple has taken on Wall Street would show up in how consumers view the company's brand - and you'd be wrong. A new survey again ranks Apple as the most valuable brand, easily outdistancing its arch rival Google. Indeed, Apple is still seen as the 'gold standard' when it comes to brands, according to market research firm Millward Brown...
Whenever I stumble upon a survey predicting that Apple's iPhone will loose traction to not just Android, but Windows Phone as well, my blood starts to boil in my veins.
And just like clockwork, you can count on the likes of IDC and Gartner to come out of the woodwork every now and then with wild predictions of the iPhone's demise by 2015, 2016 or 2017.
History has taught me to take such long-term predictions with a healthy dose of skepticism, even more so if data comes from big name firms whose crystal ball peering is based on "polls" that sample a few hundred random people, at best.
With that in mind, here's a survey that paints a rather rosy future for the Apple smartphone. Noting that Android is actually losing one out of every six customers to other phone vendors, Yankee Group ran their spreadsheets and determined that Apple will surpass Android in U.S. market share by 2015, provided Apple brand loyalty numbers hold up in the coming years...
In the contest for coolness, the amorphous concept potentially driving young consumers to smartphones, tablets and other devices, Apple has some competition. While the iPhone maker is seen as cooler now than previously by 60 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds, even more people point to Android as the king of cool.
Even more surprising is Microsoft apparently isn't your father's software giant. The Windows maker - long viewed as buttoned-down and behind the technology curve - has revamped its image, thanks largely to the firm's smartphone and Surface tablet...
It's hard to describe a company worth billions as 'scrappy,' but that's the image Apple has gained recently. To emphasize the point, a brand rating service Monday announced the iPad and iPhone maker was able to top rival Samsung despite a string of financial and competitive reversals. Apple's brand value rose to $87 billion, up from $70 billion.
And according to Brand Finance, the Cupertino, California company also saw its brand rating slip from AAA+ to AAA. In addition, Ferrari - not Apple - was named the word's most powerful brand...
It is no secret that the Samsung logo along with its brand appearance isn't the best fit to convey the South Korean conglomerate's many business. Samsung makes refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, smartphones, tablets, networked TV sets, computers and many more items. It's also a big player in construction, weapons tech, life insurance, advertising and theme park industries, to name a few.
The word on the street is that the company will launch a new brand image at CES 2013 and has enlisted the talent of Scott Bedbury, a freelance brand consultant who has also worked with Starbucks and is now reportedly tasked with creating a “more vibrant International brand image alongside the likes of arch rival Apple”...
A recent survey of 70,000 US consumers by the American Customer Satisfaction Index shows that Apple is once again holding a comfortable lead in customer satisfaction over other computer OEMs.
This won't come as a surprise if you're a Mac owner. Having made a complete switch from PC to Mac myself over a year ago, I can't even fathom the idea of ever owning a PC again...
In the latest random news, the Girl Scouts are going tech-savvy. The Girl Scouts of Northeast Ohio will now be swooning you out of your money with Intuit's GoPayment app for iPhone and Android.
Credit cards and cookies seem to be the winning recipe for the Girl Scouts. The next time a scout knocks on your front door, hide your credit card. There's no telling how much one would be willing to pay for some Thin Mints when the credit card is an option for payment.
I think this is a must-watch video of Steve Jobs talking about branding and where Apple should stand. I'm not sure when this video was recorded, but I'm glad Steve didn't do about speech about clothing. I mean look at these shorts, man, that's wild! At any rates, this is the essence of Apple.