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Of all the world's great brands, one name rises above all others. It's the brand most people would like to have dinner with, the brand that would have most impacted the world if it had existed 100 years ago, the brand that most inspires, that most people want to be.

And the envelope, please. This superbrand is ... Apple, of course. From "Think Different" and OS X to the iPod, the iPhone and all the way back to Mac itself, it's Apple that has won the hearts and minds of consumers around the world.

Actually, make that marketers. The results come from a survey of 2,000 readers of brandchannel.com -- 74 percent of whom are from the marketing industry. Here's what the survey of "brandjunkies" found:

Imagine Apple in 1908

Asked which brand would have the greatest impact if had been around a century ago, 15.5 percent of respondents said Apple. "If the whole of Apple were transported back to the early 1900s, we might have eliminated our dependency on foreign oil already, and alternative energy sources would be mainstream, not alternative," said one respondent.

Further down the list, at 8.4 percent, was Google. "I think we would be in flying cars by now if the Google guys had 100 years to work!" said a Brandchannel reader.

On the other hand, Microsoft was the top answer when readers were asked which brand they would most like to argue with. One reader asserted: "They must rethink their values to make them match with their most influential opinion leaders: IT staff and professionals." Another complained that Microsoft products are "frustrating to use" and said the company offers "very little innovation."

The Inspiration Leader

But Apple was right behind Microsoft in this category, with respondents noting that CEO Steve Jobs "exploits" customers' goodwill. "How Apple gets away with it, that's...