Nerds: Apple Crowned World's Top Brand

You know the saying "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree"? Well the ones over at Apple don't seem to be fallling at all, as they've been crowned The World's Top Brand.


The iPhone and iPad maker beats out Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Google and IBM, according to new research on brand valuations.

Apple (AAPL) is the world's top brand, according to research released Wednesday by brand-valuation specialists Eurobrand, comfortably beating out second-place finisher Coca-Cola (KO).

Eurobrand rated Apple's brand value at more than $96 billion, well ahead of Coca-Cola at nearly $76 billion.

Apple, however, was not the only tech company with high brand awareness. Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG) and IBM (IBM) rank third, fourth and fifth, ahead of McDonald's (MCD), AT&T (T), Procter & Gamble (PG), Pepsico (PEP) and Philip Morris International (PM). (Microsoft owns and publishes MSN Money.)


Apple, which launched its new iPhone 4S last week, continues to prove phenomenally popular with both investors and consumers. Recently, for example, Apple's stock hit new highs, briefly surpassing oil giant Exxon Mobil (XOM) in market cap.



Earlier this week, the gadget maker announced that the new iPhone 4S had smashed the company's record for preorders in a single day. Apple received more than 1 million orders for the iPhone 4S in the 24 hours after the device’s preorder debut, besting the record of 600,000 same-day orders for the iPhone 4.

Shares of Apple, which reports its fourth-quarter results next week, were rising 0.9% Wednesday morning at $405.70.










(via msn)