Cupertino tops the chart for the sixth time in a row

May 12, 2016 05:05 GMT  ·  By

Apple has recently revealed the first declining iPhone sales since the launch of the product and this unexpected turn made critics claim that the company has lost its cool factor and unless the next-generation iPhone is a revolution, the company could easily collapse.

And yet, here’s Forbes’ latest research which puts Apple at the top of the world’s most valuable brands chart, just ahead of Google and Microsoft, two of the companies that are said to innovate more these days.

Before anything, it’s worth mentioning that Forbes’ rankings are entirely based on financial data, so they take into account earnings and price-to-earnings ratio. So despite the drop in sales, the iPhone continues to be a very profitable business and this is why Apple has come on top of the table.

According to estimates, Apple is worth no more, no less than $154.1 billion (€134.9 billion), an increase of 6 percent.

Facebook posts the biggest growth

Google is the second company in the chart with a brand value of $82.5 billion / €72.2 billion (up 26 percent) while Microsoft came on third with $75.2 billion (€65.8 billion). Microsoft has managed to close the gap on rivals this year thanks to the introduction of new products, such as Windows 10, Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book, but also because the company is investing more in cloud solutions, which are becoming a key business for the Redmond-based corporation.

Coca-Cola is fourth in the charts, while Facebook is fifth with a growth of no less than 44 percent the last year. This means that Facebook is on track to take over Coca-Cola and thus get closer to the other technology giants that are already trying to hunt down Apple.

It goes without saying that Microsoft can only be pleased with these results given the fact that it’s now on the podium, but we’re pretty sure that Redmond is aiming for the leading spot, especially now that Apple is said to be in the middle of an identity crisis that’s hurting sales of its flagship product.