The Value Of The Brand -Apple,Ahead Of Google

The Value Of The Brand -Apple,Ahead Of Google

Have you considered the guestion of the famous brand-Apple?Or have you ever considered the value of the search tool- google?Have you ever compared of these two things?

If you’d asked the guys behind the BrandZ survey at any point over the last four years, they’d have told you “Google,” but in 2011 their answer has changed. Apple is now the hottest property in terms of consumer goodwill, earning an estimated valuation of $153.3 billion and leading a pack that includes the likes of Coca-Cola, BMW, HSBC, and Disney. The tech sector had a very strong year as a whole, with Facebook’s brand improving in value by a staggering 246 percent (to $19.1b) and Amazon becoming the world’s most valuable retailer (at $37.6b) in spite of having no actual stores. Sadly, there were some downers too, as Nintendo lost 37 percent of its brand worth over the past year, Nokia dropped by 28 percent, and the BlackBerry marque was considered 20 percent less awesome than before. Punch the source link to learn more.

The Mobile Lowdown: Nokia, Apple iPad Pricing, Square, Disney

Our rundown of mobile news to start your day. Nokia’s MeeGo payoff; what the ASP of today’s iPad tells us about what’s next; Square hits $1 million, and Disney (NYSE: DIS) hedges its bets between apps and HTML5 with a new acquisition. Read on for the details.

—Disney: Here’s one win for the open mobile web, or at least an example of how one big media company is clearly hedging its bets. Disney has bought Rocketpack, a Helsinki, Finland-based company that runs a platform to develop HTML5 games. Terms of the deal were not disclosed but Techcrunch estimates the value to be between $10 million and $20 million. The company will become a subsidiary of Disney Interactive Media Group. What’s interesting is that while Rocketpack does develop its own games (such as Warimals, pictured), its main business is in offering its platform to other developers. Owning an asset like this puts Disney in the position of producer and aggregator rather than straight mobile content owner.

—Nokia: Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is putting the bulk of its effort now into making Windows Phone-based smartphones, but it is also trying to forge ahead with MeeGo…That is, if it can keep its developers on-side and away from the clutches of Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and Google (NSDQ: GOOG). A report from the Finnish newspaper Taloussanomat (via YLE) says that apparently Nokia is now offering bonuses of 50 percent of a MeeGo programmer’s salary if that employee stays on until the launch of the first MeeGo smartphone. The programmers have to hit three deadlines to get the payoff: end of July, end of September and end of December. Nokia has yet to give an official launch date for the device, which some are speculating will be called the N950, and it is unclear really what it plans to do with the OS in the longer term.

—iPad: Lots of numbers coming out of yesterday’s unveiling of the iPad from Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), including some on pricing. Up to now, Apple has sold 15 million units and generated $9.5 billion in revenue. That works out to an average selling price of $633. 3G devices have proven especially popular. The iPad 2 will cost the same as the first model, but it may not be unrealistic for Apple to see more people buying the iPad 2 at higher price points: the next-closest competitor on the market, the Xoom, is priced nearly at the same level as Apple’s most expensive device ($799 for the Xoom vs $829 for the 64GB/3G iPad), and there is growing consumer interest in the device. More importantly, prices for older iPads are now dropping fast. And all this is setting the stage for an iPad 3 that will most likely be somewhat more expensive.

—Square: The retail mobile payments company is now processing $1 million in transactions per day. The news came via a tweet from Jack Dorsey, the company’s CEO who is also the co-founder of Twitter. That’s just a small dent in the billions of dollars per day done in retail transactions worldwide, but it is a huge leap for a service that only went live last year and originally projected to process $40 million in 2011. Square is not breaking out yet how many transactions are done via its dongle versus manual entry. The company takes a 2.75 percent cut for dongle-based transaction; but if users enter a card number manually (that is, not using Square’s own scanning dongle) then the commission is up to 3.5 percent, plus 15 cents per transaction.

Question : Why Rocketpack Entered Disney’s Orbit

If you believe Disney’s every digital-minded move is dictated by board member Steve Jobs, note that its latest acquisition, Rocketpack, is intended to be of use outside the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) App store. The purchase was first reported by Techcrunch.

What attracted Disney (NYSE: DIS) Interactive Media Group to this Finnish social gaming developer is an engine—named Rocketfuel, natch—that enables game play on any digital platform without bothering with the restriction of Apple or Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash. Their games can work as easily on Facebook, which has been a boon to the likes of gaming sensations like Zynga, or any old website.

There’s a reason that appeals to DIMG, where co-presidents John Pleasants and James Pitaro couldn’t be more bullish on the future of social gaming (and not the console side of the business). While Pleasants oversees the gaming aspect of the business, it’s Pitaro who could be the beneficiary of Rocketpack. He oversees Disney.com, where casual games are a big part of the strategy to building up traffic across that flagship and other Disney-owned sites, as well as the company’s emphasis on a big presence on social networks, whether Facebook or another new Disney acquisition, a social network for kiddies called Togetherville.

DIMG has also put a lot of focus on taking the many franchises and characters at its disposal and making them available across platforms, whether mobile, tablet, laptop or TV. The best way to make that vision happens is to remove any hurdles to the instant-gratification experience that is social gaming, and Rocketpack makes that happen.

Disney isn’t the only one conglomerate that has focused on easy access to browser-based social experiences. Paramount recently made a deal with Funtactix to create MMOs around intellectual property like new movie Rango that don’t require plug-ins or downloads.

Disney Openning Cute Cell Phone Store In Tokyo

Disney exited the cell phone business in the US back in 2007, but the MVNO Disney operates in Japan seems to be doing well: last month, Disney Mobile Japan started offering a special Android phone, which is currently being advertised on national TV. And yesterday, Disney Mobile even opened [JP, PDF] a physical store in central Tokyo.

As you would expect, the store looks pretty cute. It’s very small (Disney wouldn’t say howsmall), too, but my guess is the target group over here doesn’t care.

If you make it to Tokyo, and if you happen to be both a Disney fan and cell phone geek: the store is located in Shinjuku ward and open every day.