Apple Inc. has surpassed search-engine giant Google Inc. as the world’s most valuable brand, according to WPP plc, Bloomberg reported.

Apple’s brand value climbed 84 percent in the past year to $153.3 billion, WPP’s Millward Brown unit said. Google’s brand lost 2 percent to $111.5 billion, ending four years atop the rankings, and International Business Machines Corp. climbed 17 percent to No. 3, ahead of McDonald’s Corp.

New versions of the iPhone and iMac and the introduction of the iPad tablet helped Apple almost double sales and profits for the latest quarter, Bloomberg said. Apple, which overtook Microsoft Corp. in May 2010 as the most valuable technology company by market value, boosted its share of the global phone market and is the leading seller of tablet computers.

“It’s clear that every single Apple employee, from Steve Jobs and Tim Cook to the summer interns, sees protecting and nurturing that brand as a top priority,” Millward Brown CEO Eileen Campbell wrote in the report. “Tablet computing also drove value growth not just for Apple, but also for the providers who support yet another networked device.”

Facebook Inc., operator of the world’s largest social-networking site, had a 246 percent climb in brand value, the fastest, to become the No. 35 brand at $19.1 billion, according to the report. Baidu Inc., Google’s Chinese rival, posted the second-fastest climb at 141 percent and became the No. 29 brand at $22.6 billion.

Twelve of the top 100 global brands were from China, led by China Mobile Ltd. and Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd.. Amazon.com Inc., which ranked 14th, overtook Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which ranked 15th, to become the most valuable retail brand.