APPLE Inc., burnished by the iPhone’s success and memorials to Steve Jobs, displaced Google Inc. as top company in Harris Interactive’s poll of corporate images. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and Johnson & Johnson dropped.

Apple earned the highest score in the 13-year history of Harris’ survey of U.S. consumers, buoyed by its financial success and products like last year’s iPhone 4S, said Robert Fronk, the pollster’s executive vice president.

The rise came even as corporate America’s reputation sank, hurt by sagging views of the financial industry, Harris said Tuesday in a statement.

“After a little positive momentum last year, across the board, we saw the tarnish come back,” Fronk said. “Whether it’s due to Occupy Wall Street or the bad news in general, the negatives of the banking and financial services industries are spreading.”

J&J, the world’s second-biggest seller of health care products, fell to seventh after three years of product recalls, the first time the firm’s reputation has ranked below the top two in Harris’ annual poll. Berkshire plunged from 4th place to 24th, after an executive resigned in March and was accused by chairman Warren Buffett of violating the firm’s insider trading rules.

Only eight companies were rated as “excellent” in Harris’ poll of 17,000 people, half the number of last year.

Google, the Mountain View, California-based owner of the world’s most popular search engine, slipped to second place from first last year. Rounding out the top five were Coca-Cola Co., followed by Amazon.com Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc.

Apple topped the public’s ratings for vision and leadership, products and services, financial performance and workplace environment, four of the six categories that Harris tracked. The company’s shares topped the US$500 mark at the close Monday and advanced 41 percent in the past 12 months. (SD-Agencies)