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 to dominate the whole world but by focused efforts to take and own a specific part of that world. I think that’s what we saw yesterday at the unveiling of Apple Maps. Continue reading New Kids on the Block: Apple Maps Launch
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 educate the customer on what was important (a) first, before your competition and (b) in such a way that he’s ask your competitor about stuff that you knew he didn’t have. Nothing new there; it’s Sales 101.
That’s what Google Maps just did today, a week in advance of the anticipated Apple Map launch. The things they announced were nice, but Google introduces nice stuff on their maps every month with a lot less fanfare. They have been since 2004. And that was the real point they were making. Continue reading Google Maps Laying Down Landmines
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. Continue reading INRIX gets Traffic Right
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, in what looks like a move to pre-empt Apple has just announced a Mapping event the week before that strongly hints at some new 3D technology (6/6/12 Update: See comments on Google’s event here). And Nokia has been collecting LIDAR data through NAVTEQ for years and can’t be far behind. This will position 3D and the Next New Thing; the next competitive battlefield in mapping, and therefore in the $30B local search market.
There is a new competitive dimension in mapping, but it is not the z-axis. It is however vertical; specifically, the vertical integration of geo-data with the geo-platform. Continue reading The New Dimension in Mapping – Not the One you Think.