Survey finds Microsoft more trusted than Google and Apple

While other technology companies have been rocked by controversy Microsoft has been quietly going about their business, making friends out of old enemies and looking after their customers well.

For that, the company has been richly rewarded, not just financially, but also in terms of trust, with a recent Axios and Harris Poll finding the company is one of the most trusted technology brands.

The survey was conducted from November 2018 through January 2019 on a nationally representative sample. One group, 6,118 U.S. adults, was asked to identify the two companies they believe have the best and worst reputations. Then, the 100 “most visible companies” were ranked by a second group of 18,228 adults across key measures of corporate reputation.

Microsoft was the third most trusted technology brand after Amazon, which held the second position overall. Samsung was the second most trusted technology brand, and held the 7th position overall.  Microsoft held the 9th position overall and has been holding mostly steady over the last 10 years.

Apple was the 32nd most trusted company overall, and the 8th most trusted technology company, and has clearly been trending down over the last few years, and this year dropped 3 positions overall, which is actually not that much considering scandals such as thottlegate.

Google also dropped 13 points overall, also trending down over the last few years, while Facebook, which has been trending up, has seen a sudden drop this year of 43 positions after repeated concerns about their management of private user data finally started to bite.

While consumers appear to trust Microsoft, this perception is somewhat at odds with that of fans, who are very unlikely to trust Microsoft to stay the course when it comes to a consumer product or service. As Microsoft increasingly withdraws from the consumer sphere this, of course, becomes increasingly less of a problem.

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