Jeff Thurston and I pulled together our Top 10 of 2007 and notably omitted the NAVTEQ and TeleAtlas acquisitions. While this consolidation and pitched battle on the consumer navigation front may have an impact on consumers and some geospatial vendors, it’s likely to have little relevance to geospatial practitioners, particularly on the sustainability front.
So why mention it now? The reason for bringing it up is the huge amount of press and awareness that these acquisitions have stirred. The scrutiny on the stock of Nokia, TomTom and Garmin has been considerable, and has impacted other public geospatial companies. It has paved the way for more private investment in data gathering. It has also spurred speculation of an exit strategy for private geospatial data companies looking to sell themselves to Google or Microsoft or others.
While the consumer market isn’t of direct interest to the Vector1 Media mission, it’s clear that there will be innovation and investment in this space that will have implications for all geospatial practitioners.
Among the top issues that arise from the consumer space are the implications of “crowd-sourced” geospatial data collection as geospatial data gathering hits the mainstream. Will the data gathered from consumers have any role within the geospatial community?
