"Eric Frost / HR and Associates, Inc." wrote:
> I love MapInfo Pro, so flexible and handy for GIS work,
> my favorite work tool... but have to admit I am curious
> about ESRI's vapor announcements regarding the new
> ArcView and wonder in darker moments if MapInfo is
> actually more focused on landing more enterprise clients
> like Sprint.
ESRI's going to be busy rethinking again now that Microsoft is
retiring all the old COM and DCOM stuff in favor of this new (and
incompatible) thing called "C-sharp."
MapInfo isn't going to die anytime soon. Read J.D. Wilson's
column in the back of the Aug 2000 GEO World, in which he points
out that MapInfo and Trimble are the ONLY two "geotech" stocks
that have outperformed NASDAQ this year.
I suspect that MapInfo is not overly worried about the little one
and two license shops. MI Pro sales are not the big cash cow
these days. Still, the product is top-quality, and if you work
with large databases in large enterprises and can leverage what
it can do, it's well worth its salt. But I don't think you will
see lots of special features and GIS-science innovations from
MapInfo included in the box very often anymore. I think they are
following sound business practice and simply going where the
money is--big corporations. Innovation is back in the hands of
third-party types who use MapBasic and MapX.
Anyway, that's just my current uninformed opinion. Ask me next
week when I'm even less informed and I'll tell you something
else.
- Bill Thoen
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GISnet, 1401 Walnut St., Suite C, Boulder, CO 80302
tel: 303-786-9961, fax: 303-443-4856
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.ctmap.com/gisnet
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