::::100 Most Valuable Brands: Apple Tops Again; Nokia Disappears::::

<p>&nbsp;<img src=&quot;http://www.techgig.com/files/photo_1337884627_temp.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;Image&quot; align=&quot;left&quot; />WPP&rsquo;s Millward Brown published its&nbsp;annual BrandZ study, ranking the world&rsquo;s leading brands, which are increasingly technology companies. According to the research house, four of the top five global brands and seven of the Top 10 are tech firms.</p><p style=&quot;margin: 0px 0px 0.45em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline&quot;>At $183 billion, Apple is the world&rsquo;s most valuable brand, a title it claimed last year as well, though at that time the brand was worth $153.3 billion. In the ensuing year, it has grown another 19 percent. IBM ranked second with $116 billion in value. Google, which ranked second last year, this year swapped places with IBM, after its brand value slipped 3 percent year over year. With a $76.7 billion brand, Microsoft claimed fifth place, ranking below McDonalds &mdash; the only non-tech company in the top five.</p><p style=&quot;margin: 0px 0px 0.45em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline&quot;>The biggest year-over-year gain also went to a tech company: Facebook, which rose from No. 35 in 2011 to No. 19 in 2012. A meteoric rise, and one that spiked the company&rsquo;s brand value 74 percent to $33.2 billion.</p><p style=&quot;margin: 0px 0px 0.45em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline&quot;>Nokia,&nbsp;which ranked 81st in brand value in Millward Brown&rsquo;s 2011 study&nbsp;after a 28 percent year-over-year decline in value, fell even further in 2012. So far, in fact, that it seems to have fallen right off the chart. Not a surprise, really, given the company&rsquo;s current situation. But worth noting just the same;&nbsp;as recently as 2008, Nokia was the world&rsquo;s ninth most valuable brand.<img src=&quot;http://allthingsd.com/files/2012/05/BRANDZ2012-640x404.jpg&quot; border=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot;BRANDZ2012&quot; width=&quot;500&quot; height=&quot;500&quot; /></p><p>&nbsp;</p>

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