Apple (AAPL): The world's most influential brand?

According to a new worldwide poll of professionals and students by online magazine brandchannel.com, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is the brand which has the largest impact on consumers and their lives. The readers were asked to say how these brands affected their behavior and view of the world. Microsft (NASDAQ: MSFT) lead the list of brands that consumers most wanted to argue with.

The survey covered people from 107 countries.

While the poll might not be the most scientific one ever made, it does show how Apple has built its image from being a niche PC company in 2000 to being a provider of critical products for people almost everywhere. Most of the credit for this probably belongs to the iPod. The product has sold over 140 million units worldwide.

The power of the Apple brand is also behind the reason the company could release the iPhone into a handset market which is already highly competitive and crowded with other, larger brands.

The critical question for Apple, now that it has won the branding war, is what its next act will be.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.