Microsoft Corp has turned to its pollsters Hart Teeter Research to bolster its defense against US government and states’ antitrust charges with research claimed to show the government has failed to demonstrate a rationale for this case. The company paid the pollster to interview 1,002 US adults on January 5 and 6 about Microsoft itself, the computer industry and the trial. The pollster says responses to questions about the trial indicate the public do not see it protecting their interests or benefiting competition in the computer industry. 56% said the federal government should stay out of the industry and leave the market and consumers to decide. 25% said the government should intervene. 73% said Microsoft benefits them and the industry. Of the two-thirds who’d heard of the suit, only 29% said it has their best interests at heart. It didn’t ask them about monopolies, which is what the case revolves around. Interviewees tend to have a positive feeling about competition when that’s raised in questions but a negative feeling about monopoly, said the pollster.
