BAD HARDWARE WEEK

  
Apple, which dominated the top position for three straight years, saw its brand value fall by 20 percent to $147.88 billion.
"US search engine Google has overtaken rival technology titan Apple as the world's top brand in terms of value, global market research agency Millward Brown said Wednesday. Google's brand value shot up 40 percent in a year to $158.84 billion (115 billion euros), Millward Brown said in its 2014 100 Top BrandZ report. 'Google has been extremely innovative this year with Google Glass, investments in artificial intelligence and a range of partnerships,' said Benoit Tranzer, the head of Millward Brown France. "
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99% BAD HARDWARE WEEK: No more iPad marketing magic ? In the same time Google is cool with its Glass and AI interfaces, where Apple seems failed. And that after law of high numbers must stroke concumers' brand perception. And shareholders' too.

On the other hand, Apple has no real answer for the cloud based services being offered by companies like Google. Apple maintains a rigid control over its own platform and gets to profit enormously from it, but it has little in the way of software value add itself to challenge its competitors who often have nothing but software.
In many ways, Apple is a victim of its own success. It has painted itself into a very big, well furnished corner of the tech world.