MapQuest wants you to know…

This from MapQuest:

Today, MapQuest released the new MapQuest blog.

InformationWeek Reports BI Business Grows 22% in ‘08; Will LI follow?

Citing studies by Gartner, the market research firm, InformationWeek reports that business intelligence (BI) software solutions grew 22% in 2008 to $8.8 billion with only six vendors comprising 75% of the market: SAP/Business Objects, Oracle, IBM/Cognos, SAS, Microsoft, and Microstrategy. SAP/Business Objects own 24% of the market outright with $2.1 billion in revenue. Gartner suggested some bifurcation of the market with IT departments either purchasing "stack-centric" solutions (e.g. IBM, Oracle, etc.) or targeted solutions for specific departments thus leaving mid-tier BI players with decreasing revenue.

It got me thinking about two issues:

1. Are location intelligent (LI) solutions following the same trend: Will the larger, "stack centric" LI providers like Microsoft, Oracle and SAP be the leaders in the LI space? Are they already?

2. Will LI be absorbed into BI as just another weapon for the BI solution vendors?

Tele Atlas Turkey Data Doesn’t Match Turkish Requirements

GPS Business News reports that Tele Atlas this week informed its customers via e-mail that authorities in Turkey have held its data of that country, as it does not meet state requirements defined by the Turkish military mapping agency. Tele Atlas uses the UN country designations, which do not match those of Turkey at this time.

While this is a complex matter, I applaud Tele Atlas for its transparency.

TomTom Addresses Debt with Stock Sale

The four founders will buy shares and some others will be sold via a private placement. That should drop the company debt to €700 million. The company stock price has dropped 66% in the last 12 months, with many concerns related to the debt. With the recent announcement of a nav app for the iPhone, the stock price is up. There’s been speculation Apple may invest in TomTom. Forbes’ discussions with analysts and insiders suggests that’s unlikely.

- Financial Times

ForexYard offers an analysis of the map acquisitions in recent years. Key quoyr regarding TomTom/Tele Atlas: “‘In the future this will feature in textbooks as a perfect example of how stupid management sometimes can be,’ said Corne van Zeijl from SNS Asset Management, who now owns TomTom shares but did not at the time of the acquisition.”

ESRI(UK)‘s new Enterprise Lab

BAPCO Journal visited the Aylesbury Enterprise Lab aimed at showing how different players can take advantage of GIS technology. It features four “stations” addressing how four different users would access data needed:

The GIS Analyst - “us”
Bronze Command - first responders
Silver Command - C+C level managers
Members of the Public - regular folks