Categories
AGI GIS neogeography Thoughts

Calling Neogeographers.. UK Dinosaurs need your help!

Barney SurveyorOK so just a little tongue in cheek, but the AGI team behind the annual UK GI conference would like input in bringing in the perspective of the “Neo-geographers” in planning next years event.

This is a great idea, let’s hope that enough people in the new world of users of GI find such organisations still relevant.. this years AGI event went some way to breaking down the boundaries between the two ages of geography , lets hope the paleo-geograpahers are ready for the guys in jeans for there is much to learn !!

Written and submitted from the Googleplex , Mountain View.

Categories
GIS GPS Thoughts Transport

The dust settles on NOKTEQ

The Analysts views on the Nokia offer for Navteq makes some interesting reading. Now that the initial excitement is over, the collective view as excellently summarised by Adena at All Points Blog is in some ways surprising.

NokTeq

On many occasions these industry experts describe Navteq and for that matter Tele Atlas as GPS companies, clearly demonstrating a lack of understanding of the GI / PND market.

Navteq and Tele Atlas are classic examples of the “Data is the Intel Inside” O’Reilly-ism, provided a crucial element to a larger solution not just in the navigation space, but to a lesser extent web-mapping, and even professional GIS. It’s interesting however that neither company while still independent was able to achieve brand recognition, to the extent it registered with the consumer – one did not hear “Sorry I will only buy your device if it has Tele Atlas data”.

Clearly Nokia are positioning Navigation, Maps and LBS even as a major part of their offering, in Europe marketing a Nokia PND which competes directly with Tom-Tom. But Nokia (and Tom-Tom) realises I’m sure that the future of personal navigation will increasingly be off-board navigation delivered to mobile devices perhaps delivered through channels independent of both the mobile industry and the automotive industry who are too conservative in their approach.

For the PND potential alone this deals make sense for Tom-Tom and Nokia as they provide control over a major cost of their solutions, what will be interesting in the future will be the relative contribution made by “Cloud” collected data, as organisations like OpenStreetMap, and the new generation of devices start to collect data themselves as they are used. If this grows as rapidly as some expect, it will make there acquisitions appear even more expensive.

Written and submitted from the BA Lounge, Heathrow Airport, using the BTOpenzone 802.11 network.

Categories
Data Policy GIS

Nokia courts Navteq

How serious is Nokia about the LBS and Local Search space, well at least $7bn is would appear if today’s report in the Wall Street Journal is accurate. Following the Tom-Tom play for Tele Atlas, Navteq was always going to be up next.

At $7bn this makes the Tele Atlas deal of approx €2bn look great value ?

Written and submitted from the Scandic Regina Hotel, Herning, Denmark, using the hotels free 802.11 network.