For the second consecutive year, Apple bagged the "Brand of the Year" award from Harris Interactive. The award covered three categories, namely computer, tablet, and mobile phone.

This recent award seemed to indicate that Apple was still holding on to its spot as one of the top technology brands in the market today. This is despite doubts about the company's fate now that Steve Jobs has passed away.

Based on its Q3 2013 report, sales for the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook were 31.2 million, 14.6 million, and 3.75 million units, respectively. In Q2 2013, sales were 37.4 million, 19.5 million, and 3.952 million units for the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, respectively.

"Americans continue to give Apple brands strong ratings," said Manny Flores, Senior Vice President at Harris Interactive. "And while their Consumer Connection scores are strong within their respective categories, what really stands out is that in all three of the categories Apple brands are measured - Computer, Tablet and Mobile Phone - its Brand Momentum scores are in the top 30 of all 1,500 brands evaluated in the study, showing that consumers see this as a brand of the future," Flores added.

The Harris Poll EquiTrend study is an annual study that measured the perceptions of more than 38,000 American consumers on more than 1,500 lifestyle, product and service brands across over 155 categories".