Friday, July 31. 2009

Pitney Bowes Posts Lower Q2 Numbers; Stock Stamped Down by Wall Street

Today's quarterly report by Pitney Bowes (PBI), parent company of Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI, aka MapInfo/Group 1) was sobering, to say the least, and the company's stock declined over 12% on the news. By contrast, Trimble's lower earnings report this week sent their stock up over 11%. Perhaps its all in the way you report the news.

Revenue and earnings for PBBI or the broader "Business Solutions" division of PB are not easily discerned from the statement released by the company. In general, however, mailstream services revenue declined 6 percent, management services revenue declined 8 percent, mail services increased 4 percent, and marketing services revenue declined 17 percent. Somewhere hidden in those numbers are the results for PBBI. The company also issued revised guidance for the remander of 2009: "Worldwide consolidation in the financial services industry and slowness in the retail sector continued to adversely impact the sales and renewal of software licenses. Uncertainty surrounding the economy has resulted in many large multi-national organizations changing their approval policies for capital expenditures, which has lengthened the sales cycle... The company has not seen indications that economic and business conditions in mail-intensive industries will improve this year and has also seen further declines in some key geographies."

A bit off topic: Pan Mass Challenge Gets SatNav

I got word from a friend and "perennial road crew volunteer" for this weekend's 30th Pan Mass Challenge that TomTom had donated satnavs for the event. My contact at Tele Atlas confirmed that 30 will be in use in the event’s vehicles. Five thousand cyclists, including a team from TomTom/Tele Atlas, will cover six routes across Massachusetts to raise funds and awareness to end cancer.

The tricky part for the "road crew," which includes "all purpose" support vehicles that do everything from fixing bikes to offering extra drinks and snacks, to taking folks to the hospital, if needed, have a tricky navigation job. They "follow a route" but must be able to skirt around it to reach those in need of aid. And, as you can imagine, the smaller roads in the commonwealth can get busy with the combination of weekend car traffic along with the bicycles. Add to that the fact that volunteers come from all over the region and you can see how the devices are going to come in handy.

I'll be tackling a 150 mile route over the weekend in memory of two good friends who died of cancer.

Programmable Web Asks: Will ESRI's Free API Draw in GeoWebbers?

The site, which covers programing and APIs for the Web, got wind of ESRI's recent press release noting that even those without ArcGIS Server can now use the APIs for free. Adam DuVander suggests that now ESRI has removed the biggest criticism about about its Web offerings and asks if that means programmers will flock to ESRI's solution. He notes: "It’s not as clear for those not already an ESRI shop what it provides over Google, Yahoo or any other mapping provider."

I think that misses the point. ESRI didn't make the API available to pull in those who are using or considering using these other APIs. (If it did, it would have addressed the differences between its offering and those from Google et al.) It changed the terms to better serve its existing users, many many of whom are non-profits (and governments of various sizes) who will be unlikely to ever hold an ArcGIS Server license.

- Programmable Web

Thursday, July 30. 2009

Microsoft Offers SQL Server "Add-in" for MapPoint

Microsoft PR just let us know that Microsoft released a free SQL Server add-in for MapPoint. It does what you'd think: "Customers using the MapPoint add-in for SQL Server can visualize and manipulate data directly on a MapPoint map."

Chris Pendleton (who writes the now Bing Maps blog, at this new address) provides details:

The add-on solution is NOT web-based. But it is inexpensive. SQL Server 2008 Express is free, the add-on is free and desktop MapPoint is $300. Thus "you get the power of some hardcore data visualization with offline capabilities" for a few hundred dollars.

MapIt (announced recently) is for the enterprise and is NOT an offline solution (and costs way more, $4500).

He also notes, but does not answer this question: "…what in the world has taken us so long to be these two together?"

$50,000 Mini-Helicopter May be UAV for Everyone

Rafe Needleman at C|net is impressed with the device from Aeryon which packs into a suitcase-sized create and can fly for 20 minutes at at time up to 500 feet (FAA rules) and take digital pictures or stream live video. Another great feature: it's got enough onboard stability that anyone can "steer" it by pointing to a location on a map. For now, the Canada-based company can only demo it in that country. It hopes for FAA ok within about six months.

French Web Mapping Firm Sues Google Over Google Maps

Bottin Cartographes filed a complaint in Paris commercial court against Google France and U.S. parent Google Inc. The basis of the complaint: "Google strategy is aimed at undercutting competitors by temporarily swallowing the full cost until it gains control of the market." In particular, "Google is undercutting the market by offering map services to some companies for internal use for free – if they use Google Maps on their internet site," according to one report.

Bottin seeks 500,000 euros (706,000 dollars) in damages.

- AFP