Apple continues to be the top brand worldwide

Nov 6, 2014 13:14 GMT  ·  By

Apple has once again been named the world's most valuable brand, while the Redmond-based rival reached the second place thanks to recent investments and its increased focus on hardware and cloud services.

In an announcement released today, Forbes has revealed that Apple was valued at $124.2 billion (99.2 billion euro) thanks to what the experts call excellent sales performance across the world, with tens of millions of devices sold each year. At the same time, Apple's brand relevance and credibility in all markets where it's currently actively competing are also key factors for getting the first place in the chart.

Microsoft, on the other hand, which comes second for the first time, is worth $63 billion (50.3 billlion euro), nearly half of Apple's value. This is an increase of 11 percent, Forbes says, which is quite a strong performance given the fact that the Redmond-based tech giant was flat the previous three years.

Google is the third company in the chart with a value for $56.6 billion (45.2 billion euro), an increase of 19 percent as compared to the same period of the previous year.

What makes Microsoft be worth so much?

There's no doubt that Microsoft's board must be pleased with this performance, especially because the company undergoes one of the biggest transformations in history for the software giant.

Microsoft has a new CEO since February 2015 and it has recently purchased Nokia's Devices and Services, a move that forced the new leader Satya Nadella to turn to a layoff impacting no less 18,000 workers across the world.

As Forbes writes, Microsoft's impressive value increase is the result of “a move away from the PC and software licensing model towards cloud offerings.”

Obviously, this is the merit of the new CEO Satya Nadella, who pushed the company from the previous focus on devices and services to a mobile-first, cloud-first world.

Microsoft has a more consumer-focused approach

Ever since Satya Nadella took over from Steve Ballmer in February, Microsoft is a lot more focused on consumer feedback, so many of the company's new products are designed to address complaints and implement suggestions received from users.

Windows 10 is obviously living proof because it's entirely built on user feedback, with Microsoft introducing a brand new Windows Insider Program that allows testers to get in touch with the company's developers and not only report bugs, but also make suggestions as to what it needs to be improved in the operating system.

Nadella said it from the very beginning that Microsoft needed to adopt a new strategy for future project, telling employees that the company “must be obsessed over customers.”