Apple again named ‘World’s most valuable brand’ by Forbes

Despite all of the ‘doomed’ talk, and its share price being down nearly $200 from a year ago, Apple is still the world’s most valuable brand. In fact, according to Forbes Magazine, its brand is worth nearly twice that of its closest competitor.

In its annual ranking of ‘The World’s Most Valuable Brands,’ Forbes lists Apple’s value at $104.3 billion. That’s an increase of 20% from last year, and well above Microsoft and Coca-Cola, which came in second and third respectively…

Here’s the top 10 list (via AppleInsider):

Note the differences in how much Apple spends in advertising, versus a company like Samsung. Samsung spends an average of $149 million in advertising for every $1 million in brand value. Apple’s ratio is just $10 million to 1 million.

What you don’t see here is that Nokia, which agreed to sell its mobile phone business to Microsoft earlier this year, has fallen to number 72 on Forbes’ list. And BlackBerry, which isstruggling to stay afloat right now, didn’t make the top 100.

Companies on Forbes’ 100 most valuable brands list span 15 countries and cross 20 broad industry categories. Brands from U.S.-based companies make up just over half the list and tech brands are the most common with 19 entries.