Podcast: Who is #1 in GIS...and Does It Really Matter?
By Joe Francica
, Editor-in-Chief and Vice Publisher, Directions Magazine
June 16, 2008
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Take advantage of a special year-end sale on SPOTMaps, the 2.5 meter, seamless, color mosaic made to fit your area of interest. Save 25% off all SPOTMaps through November 10th, when you mention this ad! Click here for detailsWho's #1 in GIS? How big is the GIS market? Is the impact of Google affecting the sales of GIS vendors? These questions are asked all the time and the answer is...nobody really knows. But more to the point, does it really matter. With the fragmentation of the geospatial technology market during the last few years, it is difficult to place a number on the total size of the market, despite the best efforts of market research firms. Editor-in-chief Joe Francica lays out a framework for the sectors of the geospatial market and what really needs to be considered when trying to size the market...but as importantly, why the numbers today are irrelevant.
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Daratech GIS Markets and Opportunities
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Your Comments Post a comment All comments provided in this section are those of the individual who has created the post. These are not the opinions of Directions Media, its editors, staff or owners unless otherwise noted. Directions Media retains the right to edit or delete any comments posted herein.
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| Joe, When I attended BCIT here in British Columbia I was an avid ESRI camper and Directions mag reader. But having worked with Smallworld for over 8 years now, I find it hard to imagine that not once in this podcast did you even mention GE Energy nor Smallworld. Daratech used to regularly segment the market and report that the majority of the Utility market (Electric/Gas) is dominated by Smallworld. While I also do not have access to the latest survey, so I cannot confirm this for 2008, perhaps a little more research into market segment analysis is in order before discussing your sponsor's (not the GIS as a whole) market share. I think therein lies the problem really. Regardless, I do agree that these numbers are irrelevant like you said, but not because of Google. I would think that most companies that are looking for a new GIS will not simply search a website and buy one on the spot, but rather see what the rest of their market segment is using and go with the best. |
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| Rob: I agree that I omitted Smallworld from the discussion as I remember them mentioned in the early Daratech reports. And yet, today, I would probably lump GE Energy into the SI category as the company transitions away from the Smallworld legacy toward the Oracle camp. My sponsor (ESRI) notwithstanding, I'm not sure that Smallworld was dominant in the Utility category. I would have said that the market share numbers were more evenly split among ESRI, Intergraph and Smallworld and I would probably have to add IBM/GFIS to that mix as well. And I agree with you that there is safety in numbers with respect to looking at what others within the industry have chosen for their geospatial technology. |
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| The big mistake/ business choice of this particular reader's poll by Directions Magazine, is posing the question of the numbers 2,3 asf, 'next to using ESRI'. This is totally biased, as if there are no users who do geospatial who don't have any ESRI stuff at all. The question implies that you need the number 1 in order to be able to work with the 'less big' vendors. The podcast is cool, though. |
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