Quote:
Originally Posted by 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.
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There is a ton of proprietary information that goes into making the GEOBase data used for these programs. Sadly, it is not as simple as driving around and producing the map. Once you ge the raw data, you need to verify it. Ask anyone who has used a GPS what happens when you stand near a building or move one foot and the GPS shows a significant movement. you need to clean all that up. Also, when you overlay the GPS data on an arial map, often the rod you followed does not follow the road the satellite sees.
Is it worth $8B? gosh, who really knows. But then again, look at how GPS has infiltrated our lives (maps.whatever, On-Star, cell phones that know where we are, military folks calling in an airstrike feet away from them, etc). Quality data costs megabucks. Once you got it, others typically pay through the nose for it, if the owner sells at all (I used to work for a chemical company that developed extremely detailed in house physical property data for its raw materials and products. It was not available to anyone, at any price... corporate saw it as competitive advantage).