Apple Named Most Admired Company by Business Execs

Blue RibbonFor the sixth year in a row, Apple has been named the World's Most Admired Company by business executives polled by Fortune. The magazine released the results for its 2013 survey on Thursday, and Apple lead Google, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, and IBM, to name the next five companies in the survey.

Fortune conducts the survey by asking 3,800 business execs and directors to name the companies they admire most, no matter the industry. The magazine then slices and dices the results into different categories and overall winners.

"[Apple] has its fanatical customer base, and it still refuses to compete on price, making the iconic iPhone and iPad products that are still widely seen as prestige devices," Fortune explained. "Competition may be stiff, but so far it remains behind: In Q4 2012, the iPhone 5 was the world's best selling smartphone, followed in second place by the iPhone 4S."

Apple came in first overall and was also the most admired tech company and the most admired in innovation. Oh, and it was most admired in product quality. Apple has topped this list for the last six years (think: iPhone), an impressive run for the Cupertino company.

But how is it possible? Everyone knows that Apple sucks these days, that it steals everything from Android/Samsung/Google, and that without Steve Jobs—who never did anything anyway—the company is doomed. Right? Even the stock market has spoken, slashing the prices of the stock by more than 30 percent since September.

That's the narrative coming from some quarters, but it would seem that the business executives targeted for the survey didn't get the memo.

"The world expects miracles from Apple," Fortune wrote in a companion piece titled It's Lonely at the Top. "So much so that the absence of one on a regular schedule spells doom to some. Mere mortals at companies that never have put a dent in the universe continue to admire Apple's accomplishments."

Apple received a score of 8.24, ahead of Google with a score of 8.01. #3 Amazon got a score of 7.28. Apple's score did lose some ground compared to 2012, when it received a score of 8.42. In 2011, Apple earned an 8.16, while 2010 saw a score of 7.95.

Oh, and Samsung? It made the list, too. The company came in 35th place with a score of 6.5. Congrats.