Category Archives: Uncategorized

August 30, 2012: The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reported that Google had acquired the rights to a set of 7 patents from deCarta.  I worked at deCarta from 2005-9 and am pretty familiar with the patents so I … Continue reading →

The problem with World Domination is that the world turns out to be a pretty big place. Maintaining dominance in all parts of that world gets pretty tough.  Ask the Romans. World Dominators are typically subverted not be someone else who wants … Continue reading →

In my long ago sales career, my boss/mentor schooled me in the art of “laying down landmines”, his description of the practice of configuring the competitive discussion to best suit your advantages and mitigate your disadvantages.  The goal was to … Continue reading →

INRIX put out a new iPhone app for traffic a few weeks ago.  I promptly downloaded it and then forgot to use it. Just got around to it yesterday. I think someone finally got a traffic app right. Bookmark on … Continue reading →

It looks like the next two weeks will have a lot of talk about 3D maps.  Apple is widely anticipated to be breaking from Google with a new offering based on the C3 technology, likely announced at WWDC June 11-15.  And Google, … Continue reading →

com-mod-i-ty: noun: a mass produced unspecialized product During the cocktail hour at last week’s Where 2012 conference I had a conversation that I hear a lot these days:  Maps are just a commodity now. Google’s move to charge for maps has sparked an … Continue reading →

Recent patent battles in mobile have raised the value of controlling a war chest of IP to secure one’s position among the super-powers in tech’s version of the Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).  With news that Apple has recently secured the … Continue reading →

As part of the keynote address at the AppUp Elements Conference, Intel announced that they had agreed to acquire Telmap, the Israel-based location platform that has supplied navigation and mapping to many wireless carriers including O2, Vodafone, Orange and others. … Continue reading →

Ludovic Privat of GPS Business News interviewed me for a podcast about M&A trends in the Location Business. Unfortunately, it is in the subscription section of the site so it’s a little hard to get at, but I guess I should … Continue reading →

Michael Vakulenko writes an interesting post on the gap in mobile services between the handset OEM’s and the big Internet Platforms such as Google and Microsoft.  This has been pretty widely known but he does a nice job of outlining … Continue reading →