Best Brands, Innovative Products

conq writes "BusinessWeek just came out with its best global brands list. The list is quite similar to last year's with Coke topping it. The brand with the highest growth year over year: Google. The comment: 'Its recent inclusion as a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary confirms what competitors feared: Google means search to an army of Web users.'" I thought this tied in nicely to tappytibbins' story. They write "eWEEK.com has posted a feature with their picks of the 25 most innovative PC products of the last 25 years. Their #1 pick is a bit uninspired: The IBM PC. Down at #8 is the Mac. And is Apache really more of an innovation than Linux?" From that article: "15 - Palm Pilot: With an almost Zen-like minimalism of both software and hardware complexity, the Palm Pilot was no more than users needed?and exactly what many wanted."

Comments

Watch out Coca-Cola!

[ackthpt]

Number 1, Coca-Cola had better watch their back for Number 2, Microsoft!

With Microsoft's flair for chumming up to other businesses, just before "innovating" their own brands right into that market, one must be cautious.

New from Microsoft: Microsoft Cola Soft Drinks! Available in the following popular flavours (as determined by Microsoft's own R&D department.)

• Vista Beta Cola (container sizes are all the same, but content may vary)
• IE 7.0 Cola
• Sushi Soda
• Zune Soda (Every bit as good as Apple Soda!)
• Latte Cola
• XCola 360
• Diet Wasabi Cola
• Beer Soda
• Lite Beer Soda
• Steve's Chairy Cola (With a flavour so great it'll f___ing kill you!)
• Cool Ranch Cola
• Redmond Springs Mineral Water (Low Fat - Caffeine Free)

Please check www.microsoftcola.com/support periodically for updates and patches to our famous beverages

Re:Watch out Coca-Cola!

[geekoid]

heh, MS hasn't dealt with any industry as hardball as the cola industry.
They would be destroyed. Heh.

Re:Watch out Coca-Cola!

[gamer4Life]

Microsoft is always playing catch up to Google:

http://www.google.com/googlegulp/

Google's Brand

[LaNMaN2000]

I am very surprised to see Google mentioned as a company with a strong brand. While they are the market leader in search, their brand value is minimal with respect to the myriad of other services that they have launched. Yahoo seems to have a much stronger brand as indicated by its ability to establish top 5 contenders in markets as disperate as online dating, business/finance, e-mail, etc. under the Yahoo brand. While Google has a strong reputation in search, its ability to attract people to other services under the Google brand has been lackluster at best.

Re:Google's Brand

[loteck]

Nobody I know ever says that they "Yahooed it".

I think it's a pretty strong indication of brand value when the name of your company becomes a commonly used verb in the english language.

Re:Google's Brand

[ackthpt]

Nobody I know ever says that they "Yahooed it".
I think it's a pretty strong indication of brand value when the name of your company becomes a commonly used verb in the english language.[link to wikipedia/googling]

Google (as a verb) is accepted in the Oxford On-line Dictionary, too.

Not sure Yahooligans caught on. I'm certain it was even frowned upon in some countries where Hooligan has a stronger negative connotation than it carries in the USA

Re:Google's Brand

[DrEldarion]

Ah, but Google isn't a generic word for "web-search". It's a word for "web-search using Google". That's quite a distinction. People don't Google things on Yahoo.

Sheesh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Their #1 pick is a bit uninspired: The IBM PC.

Yeah, clearly nothing ever came of that.

Re:Sheesh!

[warrigal]

There was very little innovation in the original PC. It was the result of a 12 month project and had to be designed around off-the-shelf parts and a cpu that was easy to implement, rather than one that would perform. Hence the Intel 80XX rather than the Motorola 68000. Development time for the 68000 would have taken too long.

The PC was IBM's third try at a desktop computer. The failure of the first two was responsible for the short time allowed for the development of the third.

64K, no floppies, no color... lame.

pffft ... crappy list

[Average_Joe_Sixpack]

Any such list that excludes the Creative Labs 3DO blaster can not be taken seriously

car brands

[vivek7006]

I found the rankings of car brands quite interesting. Surprisingly, Toyota came out at the top. I would have thought that Honda and Toyota would share the same place as both are Japanese car manufactures and both make excellent cars.

Toyota = 7
Mercedes = 10
BMW = 15
Honda = 19
Ford = 30
Volkswagen = 56
Audi = 74
Hyundai = 75
Porsche = 80
Nissan = 90
Lexus = 92

List of innovations, or a popularity contest?

[Stormwatch]

The IBM PC, innovative? Back in the day, it was just one among several lines of personal computers. Not the first, not the best, it just happened to become extremely popular. The first true personal computer was the Apple II, and that should have had the top spot instead! (The 2nd place should have been a draw between Mac and Lisa - and maybe the Amiga, or that in the 3rd place).

Other bad picks:

- the Palm Pilot... no mention of Apple Newton or Atari Portfolio.
- Windows 95... back then jokingly called "Macintosh 89".
- Microsoft Office... Appleworks for the Apple II, anyone?

Re:List of innovations, or a popularity contest?

[erikvcl]

I agree with you that the article is confusing "innovative" with "influential".

The IBM PC wasn't innovative in the sense that it wasn't the first personal computer. It was, however the first computer widely accepted in business/corporate environments. It was no doubt more influential than any other computer of its time.

The Palm Pilot was popular, influential and, quite frankly, a great product. The Netwon, which was far more innovative was expensive and had terrible handwriting recognition.

AppleWorks was definitely innovative for its time -- and it was good for home users. For business applications, it really sucked compared to WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, etc. Office was a far better piece of software and more influential.

BTW: It's great to see support for banning MGM! We need more people like you to fight the battle.

MS Cola FAQ

[servognome]

Why doesn't my cola can open?
MS cans are complex devices. While they are engineered to world class specifications and thoroughly tested, it cannot be guaranteed that it will function in all conditions. Please take the following steps before contacting customer service:
Ensure you have the can oriented correctly
Ensure you are lifing the tab - This is located at the top of the can
Ensure sufficient force is being applied to lift the tab - Check finger for any breaks, muscle tears, or other abnormalities which may cause insufficient force to be applied

Why must I agree to a EULA before opening my drink?
EULAs are standard throughout the beverage industry. They are designed to clearly communicate your rights, as well as the rights and limitations of Microsoft, its partners, and subsidiaries.

My drink is coming out of holes in the can other than the one for drinking
This is a known issue. Please apply the latest security patches to address this issue

MS Cola went up my nose when I was laughing, and it hurts
Microsoft is not responsible and does not support such use of soda as outlined in the EULA. For information on development of undocumented soda use please navigate to the developer forum: microsoft.com/MCola/developer/forum.htm

I purchased a 12 pack, can my kids drink some of the soda?
Sharing is prohibited for the standard home edition of MS Cola. Multi-user packs are available for purchase as a seperate product.

How can I beta test Crystal Microsoft Cola?

Beta testing has not begun. You may subscribe to the CMC Newsletter for the latest information on this development product.

When will CMC be available
Crystal Microsoft Cola is scheduled to be part of the Vista launch event.

Apache vs. Linux

[tverbeek]

"And is Apache really more of an innovation than Linux?"

• Apache: a Free server for a networking protocol (HTTP) introduced in the early 1990s.
• Linux: a Free operating system modeled after an OS introduced in the early 1970s.

Yeah, in the context of the last 25 years, I think one of those is more of an innovation than the other.

How we forget

[caseih]

From the article:

"With a brand that said 'business machine' and an open architecture that invited third-party innovation, the IBM PC transformed the IT industry."

It seems we forget that when the PC was first introduced it was closed and proprietary. It wasn't until Compaq clean-room reverse-engineered the BIOS that the PC revolution really got started. If IBM had had their way the PC would have been locked down and controlled by IBM forever. Remember they used to call clones "IBM compatible." After Compaq started the cloning revolution, and Microsoft moved to make IBM-specific aspects of DOS irrelevant, not long after that IBM started to become less and less relevant. They no longer directed where the platform was going. By the i386, one could no longer talk about IBM-compatible. IBM tried to start over with a proprietary system (careful not to let cloning happen this time) withe Microchannel Architecure. Fortunately the market said, we'll stick with ISA, VESA-Local and PCI (even if MCA was superior at the time). Had IBM been successful in keeping the PC proprietary, I don't know what computers we would be using today. Maybe DEC alphas or Sparcstations. Or maybe we'd be paying $10000 a pop to IBM.