Wednesday, November 4. 2009

Aussie Ipernica/NearMap Challenge Google/Bing Maps

That's how the Ipernica, which acquired NearMap last year, is describing its launch as a new media property. The technology (proprietary) sounds a lot like Pictometry (the sensor pod attaches to small aircraft and takes oblique and ortho shots, with quick processing on the ground).

The NearMap portal is expected to launch before the end of the year and will include monthly coverage of Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane that has been built up over the past year.

The business model, per CEO Graham Griffith: "There are multiple revenue streams but the main one is licensing the service to local, state and Federal Governments, It will be free to consumers." He tosses around how great an NSDI would be. The future? Coverage of 700 cities worldwide; Australia is a just a pilot project.

I don't buy the competition with Google/Bing Maps since those (while the tech is licensable) drive ad revenue, not data licensing. And, while MS does own some of its data and uses and sells the UltraCam that collects it, neither company is yet focussed on a data licensing model. Further, many government entities use Google and Microsoft's public APIs for free.

- ITWire

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, Microsoft, Geospatial Business at 08:09 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0) |