Brands doing better in 2010, especially in new technology area. - Following the ups and downs of 2009, brands began to do better again in 2010, as proved by the Interbrand 2010 league table for the hundred top global brands. After experiencing a fall of 4.6% in 2009, the value of the most competitive brands rose by 4% this year, to $1,202 billion. At the top of the table, internet technology takes six of the 10 most competitive brands, with spectacular progress made by some. Two years ago, only four of these companies were in this league table. New technology, however, is not automatically guaranteed success, the brands have to progress and develop quickly and well, which has clearly not been the case for Dell and Nokia, which find themselves among the five brands experiencing the steepest falls. The crisis did not upset any of some of the safer bets such as Coca-Cola, which is still in first place after 11 years; Disney and MacDonald's, have also been in the Top 10 for years. Another lesson to be learned: brands can bounce back from one year to the next. 2009 was a catastrophic year for financial products but these companies are back with a bang again for 2010 (such as JP Morgan, Allianz, Santander). Finally, there have been consequences linked to the current economic situation: BP, responsible for the biggest oil slick in history, has been relegated completely from this league table (last year it was still in 83rd place). The following figures provides an overview of the 10 top brands, listed by market value: 1) Coca-Cola (+2%; $70.45 billion; same place as last year); 2) IBM (+7%; $64.73 billion; same place as last year); 3) Microsoft (+7%; $60.89 billion; same place as last year); 4) Google (+36%; $43.56 billion; up 3 places); 5) GE (-10%; $42.81 billion; down 1 place); 6) McDonald's (+4%; $33.58 billion; no change from last year's position); 7) Intel (+4%; $32.01 billion; up 2 places); 8) Nokia (-15%; $29.49 billion; down 3 places); 9) Disney (+1%, $28.73 billion; up 1 place); 10) HP (+12%, $26.87 billion; up 1 place). (I.L./transl.fl)