Wednesday, November 5. 2008

GPS Market Value Drops 21%

The value of the worldwide market for car navigation devices fell 21 percent in the third quarter per research firm Canalys. Much of the drop can be attributed to lower prices, but encroachment of handsets helped, too. The firm also puts Garmin back atop the marketshare heap at 35%; TomTom in #2 with 29%.

- Reuters

UK's "Show Us a Better Way Contest Winners" include Mapping Apps

The contest's five finalist have been selected in the contest aimed at letting the public show the government how to better communicate information. It launched in June and ran until the end of September. Each of the five finalists receive part of the £80,000 prize funding from the Ministry of Justice, Department of Communities and Local Government, and Cabinet Office. The big winner will be announced on Saturday.

Among the finalists are apps that:

locate public restrooms
locate mailboxes
show school boundary areas
enable route planning for bike trips

- The Guardian

Quote of the Week

"It looks too close to call. You see Barack enjoying a lead of a couple hundred thousand votes. But that's early. Oh no. We're calling it for Obama. Ohio for Obama. Excuse me. All right. There we go....We did not call Ohio? I apologize folks. I'm told that we are not calling Ohio. That the checkmark was misplaced. Maybe it's the one that was supposed to go to Wisconsin and it went to Ohio. You know, we got a lot of maps and stuff to fool around with here tonight...every now and then, somebody puts a check in the wrong place and look what happens."

- Brit Hume, explaining an "oops" in FoxNews' coverage of election night via PopWatch

Poor Maps Lead to Maximum Fines in Quecreek Disaster

Administrative Law Judge Robert Lesnick fined PBS Coal Inc. and Musser Engineering $55,000 for their negligence which led to nine deaths in the mine in 2002.

The judge found that the companies "knowingly mapped the Quecreek No. 1 Mine based on questionable information, knowingly placed their production agenda ahead of caution, and then directed their miners into areas that tragically turn out to be 'undiscovered country.'"

...

The judge found that Musser used an inaccurate map to determine where to mine, and later got a second map that was not dated or marked final by a surveyor. Given the uncertainty, the judge said, "A reasonably prudent person would have erred on the side of safety and taken additional precautions."

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration had suggested fines of $5,000 for each company.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Pitney Bowes MapInfo Q3 Earning Down 39%

Company officers pointed to large investments in R&D and marketing, but also cited the weak economy slowing large enterprise purchases. Revenues were up 7%.

- Albany Times Union Blog