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Joined: Feb 20, 2004 Posts: 1154 Location: South Lancashire, UK
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 1:51 pm Post subject:
neil01 wrote:
Perhaps we should also be moving away from the providing of the maps soley by the producer of the software. Perhaps rather than, for example, ALK paying Navteq royalties, Navteq should be able to provide us with the latest maps directly in the appropriate format, with Navteq then paying ALK the royalty.
Put simply, what I would like to see, is a separation between the providers of the data (ie maps) and the providers of the software to present that data to us.
Your suggestion is a good one and is what the car branded sat-nav systems do for updated maps - they are bought directly from the data supplier on DVD.
It would indeed give access to more regular updates but would cost considerably more (somthing in the region of £100-£180 per map region for in-car systems) as coversion to each format would be required (I believe the in-car branded systems all use the same std format for DVD's)
The downside is loss of revenue for the software suppliers (used to develop future versions) which would mean that prices of the devices and software upgrades would need to increase.
skippy wrote:
Selling street maps of major cities which are over 5 years out of date is fast becoming unacceptable. Paper maps are kept up-to-date with the latest road changes, so why can't Navteq and TeleAtlas do the same?
TomTom are starting to do something along these lines with their Plus service, downloads of selected city maps which I would hope use the latest available map data.
I would like to see Navman provide a similar service for their product base too.
If you have read the article that this thread refers to you will understand the process of getting the map data ready for use in the end product... your sat-nav device. _________________ Ian.
iPAQ 2210 | Navman 4100 BT Receiver
Navman iCN 635
TomTom GO
Anquet OS mapping
Joined: 24/06/2003 00:22:12 Posts: 2946 Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
Posted: Fri May 20, 2005 5:38 pm Post subject:
icsys wrote:
It would indeed give access to more regular updates but would cost considerably more (somthing in the region of £100-£180 per map region for in-car systems) as coversion to each format would be required (I believe the in-car branded systems all use the same std format for DVD's)
I am not convinced that Navteq are the right ones to be selling updates directly to the customers.
Many sat nav systems seem to use their own unique data format, I don't think that converting the data to this format is a job the geodata provider. They should concentrate on what they are good at (mapping roads) and let the software providers convert the data into their own format and release the updates.
Sure, it would take time and effort to convert and QA test the software but if they streamline this process well enough then the time to market would be fairly quick.
It may turn out that people are willing to put up with the occasional error. I guess it depends on how much people want regular updates and if they are willing to pay for the service.
A possible downside is that it would increase people's expectations if they got updates via a paid subscription service. If someone was paying good money for updates and they reported a map error then they would probably expect it to be fixed within the next few months. There would have to be some sort of service level agreement whereby errors in motorways, major roads or big cities are fixed in (say) 1 month and other errors are fixed within 3 months.
Not possible? It may require a lot of work and investment, but like I said - Sat Nav is now mainstream and these companies have to raise their game to keep up with customer expectations. _________________ Gone fishing!
When I said that the mapping companies should be able to supply the updated maps, I did not intend to imply that I thought that they should be the sole supplier. I also suggested that the mapping companies should pay a royalty to the navigation software suppliers in the same way that they currently pay the them.
This would I believe, give the navigation software suppliers more of an incentive to provide up-to-date maps, but give the consumer the ability to obtain the very latest maps. Additionally, I would hope that the competition with more than one source would result in reduced prices for the consumer rather than the increase feared.
I would hope that the competition with more than one source would result in reduced prices for the consumer rather than the increase feared.
I don't think this will happen soon. Just read the press releases of both the geo data provider and the navigation engine producers. They all are "glad to announce even stronger partnership" with their current partners. That does mean essentially that the hardware supplier has signed some "exclusive" contract with the map supplier. I would not be surprised hearing of some kind of "bilateral stock exchange" between such companies in the future.
It is not a technical need to have to "format" the maps for a specific target engine, there are several great interoperable formats available for that. It just makes sure that you must use this specific supplier and cannot go astray i.e. customer binding.
There is no point for the hardware manufacturer to open their engine for a competing map producer. Once the item it sold, it cannot produce any more revenue. So the financially proper way is to generate after-sales revenue with updates, paid subscriptions, extended services, ...
And to be true, a faulty map is going to produce more revenue than an up-to-date one, simply because you have to buy just another update and then yet another one as the previous one still did not sort out the old problems.
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