Apple takes 63rd place

A private New York-based research and consulting firm, Reputation Institute, recently compiled a list of the 600 largest companies with the best reputations, with Apple taking the 63rd spot, ahead of Microsoft at 137th place. Forbes reports that the electronics manufacturer went up 1.71 points from 73.71 a year ago, to 75.42 in the 2008 "Pulse" score, more than 11 points ahead of the global average. Clinching the top three spots were Japanese care manufacturer Toyota, search giant Google, and Swedish home furnishing company IKEA.

The results of the study came from 60,000 respondents during February and March, with 150,000 companies supplying ratings on 1000 companies in 27 countries. Respondents were limited in choice to domestic companies, while the firm's measurement system reflects performance based on annual revenue and gross domestic product. Reputation Institute felt the survey would have been too heavily biased to the US had it chosen highest annual revenue as its deciding factor.

by MacNN Staff