Apple has lost its place as the most trusted company in the US, with Amazon edging it out, according to an online survey of 14,000 people. Are consumers tiring of the Cupertino company, just as it's gearing up to launch into new product areas, including TVs and even watches?
Apple topped last year's Harris Interactive Reputational Quotient survey, with Google in second place and Amazon in fourth. But this year Amazon is top, with Apple dropping to second, and Google now fourth.
Other tech companies in the list include Microsoft at 15, and Facebook, which makes its debut at number 42.
Out of Apple's control
Last year, Apple notched up the survey's highest ever score, but has dropped three points this year. According to Robert Fronk from Harris Interactive, Apple's drop is down to its falling stock price.
"For a number of years, [Apple's] reputation was driven by their innovation, their products and services almost being ahead of their time and almost driving the market," Fronk told Yahoo! Finance. "Now, actually, financial performance is a dominant driver of their reputation and of course financial performance can be somewhat out of your control, as they're finding."
Fronk said Amazon's rise was due to its varied selection of products and services, but it also to the way it uses customer data: "They use that information to create the right level of intimacy with you, but without going over that fine line of being intrusive. Perceptions are that they're not giving that information to anyone else to monetize it."
Via The Verge
