Microsoft in a Word: ‘Windows’, ‘Monopoly’, ‘Software’

When people think of Microsoft, they think of the Microsoft Windows software monopoly. When asked what one word comes to mind when considering Microsoft, the most commonly chosen words were Windows (selected by 62 respondents), monopoly (mentioned by 33) and software (28).

In a national survey by Researchscape, conducted September 8 to 30, 2012, with 1,030 U.S. adults, 51% used a positive word to describe Microsoft, 26% a negative term and 23% a neutral one. Women were more likely than men to use a positive term (58% of women vs. 46% of men). And, they were less likely to be neutral (18% of women but 27% of men), but they were about as equally likely to select a negative word as men.

What were the positive terms used to describe Microsoft? The most common positive word, and fourth most common term overall, was innovative, used by 21 respondents; leader, 18; useful, 16; reliable, 14; smart, 15; everywhere, 12 and great, 12.

Microsoft’s iconic co-founder, Bill Gates, and his charitable foundation weren’t far from people’s minds: 12 used the term rich, 9 philanthropic, 7 Gates, 2 Bill, 6 charitable and 2 billionaire.

Microsoft’s videogame console did not produce much of a halo effect for the brand: only 12 people mentioned Xbox and only 1 respondent each said games, gaming, Halo or fun (a term mentioned by 291 respondents when asked to describe Nintendo).

Looking at negative terms, 33 called the company a monopoly, 13 old, 11 greedy, and 6 each for boring, monolithic, slow and work.

Count	Term	Sentiment
62	Windows	0
33	Monopoly	-1
28	Software	0
21	Innovative	1
18	Leader	1
16	Useful	1
15	Standard	0
14	Reliable	1
14	Smart	1
13	Old	-1
12	Everywhere	1
12	Great	1
12	Rich	0
12	Xbox	0
11	Amazing	1
11	Good	1
10	Big	1
10	Excellent	1
10	Greedy	-1
9	Business	1
9	Philanthropic	1
9	Powerful	1
9	Technology	0
8	Dominant	1
8	Necessary	1
8	Pioneer	1
7	Awesome	1
7	Best	1
7	Gates	0
7	Huge	1
7	Money	0

When asked to name the company they most admired, 11.5% of respondents chose Microsoft, placing it at number 4, behind Apple, Amazon and Google but comfortably ahead (i.e., outside the margin due to sampling error) of all other companies named.

How much does Microsoft monopolize the consumer software industry? ACSI LLC only benchmarks Microsoft against all the others! Despite its size, Microsoft has lagged the other providers in aggregate for every year that ACSI has measured satisfaction. In 2012, satisfaction with Microsoft dropped from 78 out of 100 the year before to 75 out of 100, behind the competitors’ average of 77.