Garmin Misses Expectations, Delays Nuviphone

The basics, from Bloomberg:

Profit, excluding a gain from a sale of Tele Atlas NV shares, was 94 cents a share, compared with the $1.01 average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Sales rose 23 percent to $911.7 million, Garmin said in a statement today, falling short of the $959.1 million analysts had projected.

Sales expectations were cut in half to 23% based on consumers holding back. Further, with so many PNDs already in the market, competition from TomTom, prices have dropped to encourage those without a device to buy.

Shares fell $5.91, or 13 percent, to $39.15 this morning, the largest drop in five years.

The Nuvifone will be delayed for at least 6 months until the first half of 2009; it was originally to be out this fall and account for 10% of sales. There’s also speculation the proposed sale price of the Nuvifone, about $300, will drop to match the new iPhone.

Microsoft and European Environmental Agency Sign Five Year Deal to Map Water Quality

Network World has the story (press release) of “Eye on Earth” a site that show water quality scores of 21,000 swimming sites across Europe in five languages: Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, German and English.

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Hardiness Zone Map: Stay Tuned

The San Francisco Chronicle tells the story of the latest Zone Hardiness Map, the map the USDA puts out to guide the nation in what plants will grow where. The latest updated map was based on a 15 year set of data and looked quite different from the one before. in particular, zones were shifted north. So, why did the USDA reject the draft map in 2003? An official statement from USDA: “It wasn’t GIS/GPS compatible. The scientists said it couldn’t be incorporated into existing models. The ‘yes or no’ decision was made at that point, even though other issues were being raised.”

In reality it sounds like politics and perhaps a fear of global warming. The latest plan: a new group from the Oregon St will build a new map based on 30 years of data. It’s expected…soon. Says the same spokesperson as the above quote: ” “Doing this at the GIS level, we can work at a much finer scale than ever before,” she explains. “The zone borders will be much more refined.”

You can see the maps here.

Microsoft VE to be in ESRI’s ArcGIS Online

The press release came out yesterday and was picked up by a number of blogs, though few had any immediate comment. I’m in the same boat. It crossed my desk and I didn’t get an immediate sense of a world changing event.

That said:

- ESRI rarely announces anything new before the User Conference.

- Delivery of Virtual Earth content via ArcGIS Online was hinted at in the ESRI UC Q & A (including pricing: $200/year per ArcGIS seat).

- ESRI has yet to officially launch ArcGIS Online; that’s coming next month.

- ESRI’s “Google” announcement at Where was rather “hands off,” that is required seemingly little partnering. This is different from a business standpoint since I have to believe Microsoft will receive some money from each subscription for its data.

Now, back to my “world changing event” comment. The reason this doesn’t seem world changing is that it’s a small step toward the future: a future of servers and services and the cloud. In this new ESRI vision, there are no “map servers” only “GIS servers” that provide data and key service. Users consume them via the Web, ArcGIS Explorer, on mobiles, and for perhaps a select few, a desktop GIS. To implement this vision, ESRI needs a different kind of partner, one that can help enable this vision. Thus, partners like Microsoft (VE and other things) and Adobe (Flex), are playing different roles than in the past. I suggest users keep their eyes open at ESRI UC for other clues that point to this type of future.

Old Poll, New Poll

A few weeks back, we asked: Has the jump in gas prices changed where you spend your time?

Of 20 respondents, there was a surprisingly even distribution.

35% Yes, I spend more time closer to/at home.
35% No, where the locations where I go are about the same.
30% No, but I visit the more distant ones less frequently.

Next up, let’s get to brass tacks. I recently wrote an editorial about moving to a Mac. More than one response suggested GIS people can’t use Macs. So, let’s see what those who visit this blog are using. Vote on the lower right hand side of our main page.