Pocket PC Intersections

[Andy Sjostrom]

I love to think about intersections and the cool stuff waiting to be discovered there. Obviously, "Pocket PC" is a common factor in my intersections thoughts. So, I take "Pocket PC" and add one or more items to get to an intersection. An intersection that I believe many will try to make money from is: "Pocket PC", "XML Web Services", "Internet", and "location".<br /><br />Take a look at sites like <a href="http://www.xmethods.com">XMethods</a> and <a href="http://www.salcentral.com">SalCentral</a> to see the growing number of XML Web Services. Although most services are samples and/or provided for free I see that providers are slowly moving to money making business models. Given the trend to publish information services as XML Web Services and given that location based services will need some kind of geographical data available to be useful I have had high hopes for Microsoft's <a href="http://www.mappoint.net/">MapPoint .NET Web Service</a>. It's great that Microsoft shows the market what a full featured Web Service should look like, and also that such a service can be used to build business on.<br /><br />However, I am afraid that only the already rich can afford experimenting at this intersection. Take a look at the Platform Access Fee at $15,000.00 USD and the Per Transaction License (2 million transactions = $15,000.00 USD, 3.5 million transactions = $25,000.00 USD, 7.5 million transactions = $50,000.00 USD) to see what I mean. Microsoft has a golden opportunity to help foster a young and inexperienced market that could grow from cross breeding MapPoint .NET and Pocket PC / "mobile". Too bad they don't take it.

[Chris Forsberg]

I couldn't have said it better myself!

If MapPoint.NET was provided at a decent cost, there would be no competition on mapping functionality in the Web Services market. Now Microsoft is opening up for other underdogs and they will probably get a decent market share.

[Andy Sjostrom]

If MapPoint.NET was provided at a decent cost, there would be no competition on mapping functionality in the Web Services market. Now Microsoft is opening up for other underdogs and they will probably get a decent market share.

MapPoint .NET has a nicely implemented set of XML Web Services that I'd like to use and given the vast geographical data behind it is currently the best service out there... to date.

My Thought is not about Microsoft vs competitors. I don't mind competition or that Microsoft competitors grab market share. I mind that getting to this intersection is so expensive, so if competition arrives and offers better or same + cheaper then I will go to competition! :)

[Chris Forsberg]

MapPoint .NET has a nicely implemented set of XML Web Services that I'd like to use and given the vast geographical data behind it is currently the best service out there... to date.

That's what I mean - I want to use it in my apps! I don't really care about competion either, I want to afford the best ;-)

[peterawest]

An intersection that I believe many will try to make money from is: "Pocket PC", "XML Web Services".

I realize I'm a little off the topic with this thought, but your comment above got me thinking about it.

Microsoft says it's opening up its Office 11 desktop software by adding support for XML.

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-977880.html?tag=fd_lede1_hed

When I read this a few minutes ago, I immediatly started thinking about how nice it would be to be able to view a fully formatted Word document in Pocket IE. I realize that it's unlikely that Pocket Word would offer support for editing these files (although I hope it will), but I'm still thrilled with the potential even if all I can do is view the file. :)

[Andy Sjostrom]

Microsoft says it's opening up its Office 11 desktop software by adding support for XML.

There's a lot of interesting things in the intersection "Pocket Word", "Office 11" and "XML Web Services". I'd love to see native support for XML Web Services in Pocket Word! 8)

[Janak Parekh]

There's a lot of interesting things in the intersection "Pocket Word", "Office 11" and "XML Web Services". I'd love to see native support for XML Web Services in Pocket Word! 8)
Seeing as how much functionality is currently missing in Pocket Word, we can dream, can't we? ;)

Also: re XML opening Office 11 formats, only time will tell. I know the MS people said they're publishing an XSD, but even an XSD can be trivially obfuscated beyond comprehension. Besides, an XSD only dictates whether something is a "valid" format, not what field "FormatParagraph"'s associated data means.

--janak

[sweetpete]

However, I am afraid that only the already rich can afford experimenting at this intersection. Take a look at the Platform Access Fee at $15,000.00 USD and the Per Transaction License (2 million transactions = $15,000.00 USD, 3.5 million transactions = $25,000.00 USD, 7.5 million transactions = $50,000.00 USD) to see what I mean. Microsoft has a golden opportunity to help foster a young and inexperienced market that could grow from cross breeding MapPoint .NET and Pocket PC / "mobile". Too bad they don't take it.

Well ... I think your info on the pricing is out of date now. The mappoint site agrees with you, but that is for MapPoint 2.0. I think with the newly release 3.0, the pricing has been updated, but while this article (http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20021213S0002) fails to mention the platform access fee price, it does have per user licensing informaiton ($10-100/user) as well as a smaller per transaction purchase($8000/1 million tx).
Still not a poor man's web service, but maybe getting better?