CoolBrands 2011: Aston Martin luxury cars are cooler than iPhones

Apple, iPhone and iPod dominated the 2009 CoolBrands index, but this year the British luxury car maker Aston Martin topped the charts, reported The Telegraph. The votes came from the British public and a panel of influential opinion formers. True, coolness is subjective and personal, but it doesn’t hurt being described as cool (and Apple often is). Apple has been described in the CoolBrands results (PDF download) as “sleek, stylish design combined with powerful, groundbreaking technology make Apple’s unique products iconic must-haves around the world”.

As for Aston Martin:

Aston Martin combines three key elements – power, beauty and soul. Its sleek, polished and sexy cars ensure the brand continues to dominate the list of the nation’s coolest brands, as judged by experts and consumers alike.

For the first time, Apple, iPhone and iPod have been treated as one (no iPad?). Apple came in second, followed by…

…Harley-Davidson (#3), Rolex (#4), Bang & Olufsen (#5), BlackBerry (#6), Google (#7), Ferrari (#8), Nike (#9), and YouTube (#10). Interesting that Apple is the only technology company perceived as a cooler entity than high-end luxury brands such as Rolex and Bang & Olufsen. Of course, this brand coolness index is limited to the United Kingdom, the country that gave us Jonathan Ive, Apple’s vice president of industrial design and arguably the most influential industrial designer of our time.