4:30
Mapping, like web search, is a positive-feedback business--the better you are, the better you get, with more users creating more data. And that means almost every other mapping initiative doesn't stand a chance. Microsoft, which licenses much of its road data from Nokia, has mainly sought to improve its maps' user interface, especially its imagery. Bing recently completed a two-year effort to capture aerial images of the United States and Western Europe at a superhigh resolution. That's nice, but given Bing and Windows Phone's small market share when compared with Google search and Android's, it's likely in vain.
Then there's Apple, whose motivations for getting into mapping are unclear. The company, which declined to discuss its mapping plans publicly, ostensibly decided to build its own maps to control the iPhone user experience. But the move has created the opposite of its intended effect.
While Apple certainly has the resources to build the world's best maps, it has yet to marshal them like its rivals. "If you look at what Google and Nokia have had to invest, Apple is not even scratching the surface," says Nokia's Brondmo. But time, more than money, may be Apple's enemy. It would take them years, maybe even decades to catch up."
17:55 Map Madness
All these companies will keep pouring money into cartography because of its inherent, unknowable promise. Mapping requires, and creates, huge troves of user data. The bet is that the data will lead to insights into user behavior that can then be turned in to new products. Or, failing that, to methods for predicting customer actions in order to serve up better ads.
In other words, the money in maps lies in uncharted territory.
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