Do ads work? The ad budgets of various companies

The dig on Apple used to be that they were a “vertically integrated marketing company” – i.e. they were more like a technological Coke, selling machines just based on slick ads alone. Now, they have one if the strongest brands out there and rivals like Samsung and Microsoft are spending money like crazy while Apple spends a tiny fraction. Horace Dediu looks through the numbers with some great charts.