A couple o days ago, Microsoft was announced the USA's most expensive brand, thereby outpacing Apple, one of its major rivals. The informations is provided by ComputerWorld with reference to the research conducted by Forester Research.
As you have probably guessed, Apple is number 2, i.e. it is the USA's 2nd most expensive brand. The experts say that the One Microsoft campaign designed to promote the company worldwide was a success and contributed a lot to the mentioned achievement.
Strange as it may seem, but Apple has been yielding to Microsoft over the last 18 months despite strong sales and pretty consistent financial results during the reporting period. Still, Apple yielded to Bill Gate's corporation in the key category called Essentials.
According to Forester Reasearch, Apple products have always been associated with premium quality and great design. Still, Microsoft products turn out to be more essential to most consumers . They are simpler but more essential. This leads us to believe that Apple is still the company for the minority of sophisticated users.
According to Interbrand, Apple became the world's most expensive brand in September 2013m thereby outpacing even Coca-Cola that used to be the leader for 13 years. The Apple brand costs 98 billion dollars. Forbes estimated the Apple brand at roughly $100bn in November 2013.
The chart below, courtesy of Masterforex-V Academy, reflects the current state of affairs in the market of AAPL. The company’s stock is retracing after the recent rally:
