[jyl]

Here's a question, sort of related.

The two companies that sell maps to the GPS device makers are Navteq and TeleAtlas. They are both being bought, for big money - several billion dollars - by Nokia and Tom Tom. Supposedly - to replicate the mapping and POI data these companies have painstakingly generated over the years would be extremely expensive and take years.

Does that sound right? Seems to me, the map data is out there, look at any paper road map from AAA or Michelin or the USGS or whoever - the map is paper but the data must be in digital form, even if merely image files, it can get converted. And the POI data is out there, look at any yellow pages directory whether paper or online.

How big a job would it be to license or acquire that information and convert into digital mapping data suitable for GPS devices? How much additional work would you need to do on the ground, hiring college kids to drive specially equipped vans around and so on?

$8 billion dollars of work? Because that's what Nokia is paying for Navteq.