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MaFt
Pocket GPS Staff
Joined: Aug 31, 2005
Posts: 15388
Location: Bradford, West Yorkshire
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 Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 12:09 am Post subject: |
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| TheGoodMan wrote: | | Darren wrote: | | TheGoodMan wrote: | | For example now tv come with the free view box built in, does this mean it is "It is sad news for TV? |
A monopoly is rarely a good thing. |
How is this monopoly? In future we will have four map manufacture Nokia, Tomtom, Google maps and Bing maps by Microsoft. Would you say four is a monopoly?
Others have to buy maps from any of the four manufactures from above. For now, others have to buy the maps from Nokia or Tomtom only so we will have more manufactures doing the maps than less. This can only be good for customers not sad. |
Bing uses NavTeq mapping. there are 2 actual map providers with good coverage - teleatlas and navteq, google's coverage of the states is, apparently, rather poor. waze and openstreetmap are not really up to the standards of NT and TA yet so don't really count.
the 'monopoly' (technically a duopoly?!) issue is not the map itself it is the fact that those who own the maps can essentially give them away for 'free' to the end user. the likes of garmin, navman, mio, wayfinder etc all have to pay to use the maps and this cost MUST be passed on. it is nothing like freeview/tv argument! sony do not have to pay the bbc to allow their programmes to be shown on their tv sets. by nokia giving away navteq mapping for 'free' it means the companies that have to pay for that data may well be left behind as users prefer 'free' over 'paid'. that's not a good thing. what happens when all the other companies pack it in? we are left with nokia and, possibly by that time, google giving their map data for free - but for how long? they would soon start charging as that would be the only option! they would be daft not to! i just hope it doesn't get to that point!
MaFt |
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robertn
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Joined: Feb 06, 2005
Posts: 564
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| Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:04 pm Post subject: |
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In the very unlikely event there ends up being one commercial map data provider, theres always the Opensource projects. These are quickly building into viable alternates to commercially provided maps, and the appliaction software is very nearly ready for mass consumption.
Pity the Opensource community does not have the same marketing and sales ability. |
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Darren
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Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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| Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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OpenStreetMap is great but where it falls down at the moment is in the routing data.
But yes, it could easily compete if that issue was resolved. Indeed in many areas the quality and coverage of OSM data is far greater than any others.
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Skippy
Pocket GPS Verifier
Joined: 24/06/2003 00:22:12
Posts: 2946
Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
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| Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:55 pm Post subject: |
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TomTom own teleatlas and Nokia own Navteq. That's a formula for the two companies to engage in some serious abuse of their customers.
I'm with robertn here. Open source mapping like OpenStreetMap will be the next big thing. It won't be long and it will hit critical mass then you will get one (or many) of the major sat nav makers throw some massive investment behind it. Map data will become a comodity, the manufacturers will make their money out of the value added features.
It will never happen? No serious company will ever invest in it? History teaches us otherwise:
The Internet.
GNU/Linux.
Mozilla (Firefox et al)
Wikipedia
And what people did with OpenStreetMap in Haiti is just awe inspiring. 
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Gone fishing! |
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TheGoodMan
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Joined: 12/02/2003 20:01:02
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Location: United Kingdom
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| Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:39 pm Post subject: |
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| Even in current market we have three map providers; teleatlas, navteq and google maps. bing.com have also started creating its own map. So in a year or two we will have 3 to 4 map providers. I dont know why people are going on about how we are going to have one or two map providers and it is sad news for satnav. Not including open source mapping. This is worest than labour / Brown spin unless I am missing something. |
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Darren
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Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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| Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 8:43 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | unless I am missing something. |
You are but I can't be bothered to explain it. Let's hope you're right and we're wrong eh 
btw, Google & Bing have yet to provide a navigable EU map and I'm betting they won't provide one that can be compared with Navteq/TA for a long time if ever.
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Darren Griffin |
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peterc10
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Joined: Aug 21, 2005
Posts: 1761
Location: Kent, England
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| Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:13 am Post subject: |
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| Darren wrote: | | Quote: | | unless I am missing something. |
You are but I can't be bothered to explain it. |
I don't think that this is a fair reply to a poster who is just expressing his opinion. We are all entitled to them, and I assumed we were allowed to express them here, even if they are not the same as the Editor's.
At the risk of getting the same sort of answer I personally do not share some of your concerns about this news (getting back to the original topic!). The most difficult bit of a navigable map is the mapping data and from what I have seen Google maps are pretty good with that, at least in the UK. Yes there are some errors, but no more, I suspect, than Navteq or Teleatlas a few years ago. So I think 3 mapping systems (I am excluding Bing) will provide plenty of competition in the future.
And, as we have already seen with other parts of cyberspace, the idea of having to recoup your investment through old fashion point of sales is not the only viable model. I wonder how much Google are (or will be) charging all those chinese restaurants, etc that appear when I do a search for them on Google maps?
If you really want to worry about a monopoly position just remember who owns and operates all of the satelites everything relies upon!
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Peter
HTC Sensation
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Darren
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Location: Hampshire, UK
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| Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 10:55 am Post subject: |
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I apologise for my curt reply to goodman. But I stand by my comments and my opinion.
Of course we will only truly know in a few years time. I honestly hope I'm wrong and all is sweet and light then.
We shall see.
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