Mapping out Microsoft's location-service strategy
Posted on Oct 20, 2004 at 01:11 PM by John Foley
Look for Microsoft to push further into the market for real-time, location-based services in the United States sometime in the next few months. New third-party services will be based on Microsoft’s widely used MapPoint application, which provides detailed views of streets and other geographic points of interest, generating about $50 million in sales last year. Microsoft has begun working with wireless-service providers and other companies on ways to apply MapPoint’s data set in real-time, mobile scenarios. Bell Mobility in Canada already offers business-oriented, location-tracking services using MapPoint, and Sprint is testing the concept. Sprint had planned to offer a commercial service in the U.S. this past summer; it's now expected to do so by year's end.
MapPoint has been available for nearly 10 years as a standalone application for consumers. Microsoft continues to spin out new products and services based on MapPoint, including the recently introduced Streets & Trips 2005 and, for mobile devices, Pocket Streets 2005. A couple years ago, the company introduced MapPoint Web Service, a hosted service that’s now used by hundreds of companies, including Expedia, FedEx, and Hilton Hotels. Last spring, Microsoft introduced MapPoint Location Server, software that, when used together with Map Point Web Service, supports business applications such as fleet management, asset tracking, field-service management, and field sales.
It’s this combination of hosted service and server software that will form the foundation for new kinds of business-oriented services. For example, an elevator company sees potential in using a location-based service to track the whereabouts of 2,500 service reps who carry cell phones. The actual cell-tracking service would be offered by Sprint or another location-service provider, not Microsoft. Same thing with the other application scenarios. Tom Bailey, director of marketing with Microsoft’s MapPoint business unit, believes these types of services will give new or more-affordable options to small and medium-sized businesses. “A lot of companies are going to start jumping on this,” he predicts.
MapPoint is behind a growing number of consumer-oriented location services, too. In August, Microsoft introduced Streets & Trips 2005 with a Microsoft-branded GPS locator. Used in combination with a laptop, Pocket PC, or Smartphone, travelers can use the technology to determine where they are, where they’re headed, and where they’ve been. Listed at $129, tens of thousands of the software/device packages have sold in the past few months. Says Bailey, “We’re seeing the units fly off the shelves.”
The jackpot in consumer services may be so called family-finder and friend-finder services that let parents keep track of kids, or teenagers keep up with each other. Microsoft doesn’t play in that space yet, but Bailey says it’s only a matter of time before such services become widespread. The big issue is privacy, with the nightmare scenario being stalkers or big brother tracking users down. In fact, MapPoint Location Server and Streets & Trips 2005 with GPS Locator already have the capability to identify an individual or vehicle’s location – that’s the whole point. Microsoft has a four-page privacy statement on how personal data gets used by its MapPoint Mobile Locator functionality.
For more, here’s Microsoft’s MapPoint Web page.
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The MapPoint desktop product (then MapPoint 2000) was announced in 1999, five years ago.
Posted by: MapPoint Magazine at October 21, 2004, 06:52 AMThis is a public forum. CMP Media and its affiliates are not responsible for and do not control what is posted herein. CMP Media makes no warranties or guarantees concerning any advice dispensed by its staff members or readers.
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