Ab phab: Apple is Britain's coolest brand YET AGAIN

It might be news to anyone who watched queues of rabid fanbois queue for days to buy the iPhone 6, but apparently Apple is still Britain's coolest brand.

In spite of its association with the heinously unhip U2, Apple's own trendiness is "untouchable", an organisation called CoolBrands has claimed. It has put Apple on the top of its list of cool brands for the third year in a row.

The trend-hunting spindoctors consulted with 37 "key influencers" including Sophie Dahl and Jodie Kidd, who are both models, as well as Julien Macdonald, who is a clothing designer.

Aston Martin is second on the list, followed by Rolex, Nike and Glastonbury. Sadly, El Reg doesn't seem to have been included on the rundown. New entries to the top 20 include Instagram and Netflix.

Stephen Cheliotis, chairman of the CoolBrands Council, said: "The iPhone 6 launch has gone well and prior to that a lot of commentators had questioned whether Apple had lost its lustre but that’s not the case.

"We’ve seen a lot of brands reasserting their dominance this year. It’s really difficult for other brands to break through - it’s almost like a glass door.

"The idea that CoolBrands is about fads and short-term reputational success is ripped apart by the solid performance and dominance of regular top 20 brands, such as Aston Martin, Chanel and Nike."

Cheliotis added: "If anything, this year’s CoolBrands rankings illustrate that a solid reputation is hard to undermine or, in the case of rivals, overcome. That said it was refreshing to see unique and original brands such as Instagram and Netflix join the top 20."

So are Apple as cool as they were? Can Tim Cook and Bono ever match the appeal of Steve Jobs and his black turtleneck?

Apparently not, according to a survey of real people carried out by Reuters and Ipsos Mori.

Some 14 per cent of 1,379 respondents said that Apple had lost its cool between 2011 and 2012. We would assume the survey really meant to ask: has Apple become less cool since big Steve shuffled off to the great Genius Bar in the sky (which happened in 2011)?

The Android brand is slightly cooler than it used to be, said 50 per cent of respondents, while 48 per cent said Apple was also cooler.

"When you have competitors who are doing a lot of innovative things themselves and great advertising, it’s not surprising that Apple doesn't have the same cachet and coolness that it once did," said Professor Kevin Lane Keller, an expert in branding who teaches at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. ®