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Marvin Hlavac
Canada
6817 Posts |
 Posted - 25 mai 2006 : 11:40:02
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Alex Daley, Technical Evangelist for Microsoft mapping products and Marvin Hlavac of www.gpspassion.com talk about the Microsoft’s CD mapping products: Streets & Trips, AutoRoute, MapPoint, and Pocket Streets.
Marvin Hlavac: The last two versions of S&T 2005 and S&T 2006 have added quite a few GPS navigation features. Will this trend continue? Will we again see some exciting functionality enhancements when Microsoft releases Streets & Trips 2007?
Alex Daley: Microsoft is highly committed to delivering what we hear our customers want and evolving the product with the latest in mapping and travel planning technology. I think you’ll be excited to learn about the enhancements we have planned for Streets & Trips 2007. Unfortunately, I can’t provide specifics regarding functionality in the 2007 version at this time.
Also, I would like to note that Microsoft offers two programs with GPS navigation features, Streets & Trips and MapPoint. Streets & Trips is a great consumer mapping and travel planning software title, while MapPoint is a business-mapping application which offers the features and functionality of Streets & Trips 2007 as well as demographic data, thematic mapping, territory management, and developer programmability.
Marvin Hlavac: We’ve read about the UMPC’s (Ultra Mobile PC’s) and computers in Ford trucks and Hummer Laptops, etc. They all run MS Streets & Trips with GPS. People use S&T for family trips and business trips in their cars, RV’s, and trucks. It seems your product already has most of the needed GPS functionality, and users would now benefit from a much simpler, and more driver-friendly interface like the one found on navigation systems in some high-end cars these days. Will we be able to say one day that S&T is not just the #1 trip planning product on the market, but also the #1 PC GPS navigation software?
Alex Daley: We hope so! While we are constantly striving for ways to meet the needs of our customers, we aren’t able to say we are the #1 PC GPS navigation software, as data firms we work with do not provide that category designation at this time. However, we have seen considerable growth with our GPS products since they were introduced in 2004 and are happy to see so many people benefiting from their functionality. As GPS technology continues to progress, we will too. We partner with great hardware providers, such as Pharos and SiRF, and are always working with them on ways to meet the needs of the marketplace and the constantly changing world of GPS technology.
Marvin Hlavac: PDA fans envy PC users the functionally of S&T. MS PocketStreets is an excellent award-winning “GPS Moving Map” product, but is there a plan to move it to the “GPS Voice-Navigation” category, too?
Alex Daley: Mobile technology is a very important to Microsoft and we continue to update our PocketStreets with the most up-to-date mobile mapping capabilities. At this time we don’t have any announcements to share, but will definitely keep you posted on any advancements in this area.
Marvin Hlavac: NavTeq Corporation, one of your map data providers, currently has navigable maps for about 70 countries. Do you plan to take advantage of the availability of the maps and expand your CD products beyond North America and Europe?
Alex Daley: Certainly. Microsoft regularly updates the geographic data in Streets & Trips and MapPoint. We are always looking into new opportunities to improve our mapping platforms and will continue to do so in the future. For example, when MapPoint 2006 Europe releases later this summer, it will, for the first time, contain coverage of major cities and roads in the eastern European countries of Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovenia.
Marvin Hlavac: Both NavTeq and also TeleAtlas announced before the end of 2005 the availability of truck routing database. Truckers in the past have been using the pushpin feature to keep track of areas to avoid. Can you foresee MapPoint, AutoRoute, and Streets & Trips one day being able to do large vehicle routing? Drivers of large recreational vehicles and truckers would indeed welcome such capability.
Alex Daley: At this time, Microsoft is focused on consumer and business travelers. However, we listen to the feedback from our customers, and if this is something that we see high demand for, we will certainly explore that feature.
Marvin Hlavac: Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
Alex Daley: With the summer travel months just around the corner, Streets & Trips 2006 with GPS Locator is the perfect tool to help plan summer road trips. With highly detailed and customizable maps, timely road construction updates, more than 5.9 million miles of routable maps and 1.8 million points of interest across the United States and Canada, everyone in the car will enjoy the ride. Also, with gas prices on the rise, the fuel consumption management feature can help travelers get the most out each tank of gas. It will help them find the most efficient route possible to stay on track and will also help calculate gas expenses for trips before they even leave home.
Marvin Hlavac: Microsoft Streets & Trips is so very versatile, feature-rich, and inexpensive. It has been used by students as a world atlas to help them with homework, it has been used by military units working in support of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in Louisiana, and it really should be installed on every computer. Keep up the good work and thanks for the interview.
Alex Daley: We appreciate the feedback and your ongoing support. Thanks for this opportunity to talk about our product offerings.
Thanks to Jim Pinter of Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, P: +1 425 638 7000, http://www.WaggenerEdstrom.com for making the interview with Alex Daley of Microsoft possible.
Marvin Hlavac |
Edited by - Marvin Hlavac on 26 mai 2006 12:16:08
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