<resources in addition to these>
The previous lecture described the implementation process, with a mention at one juncture that you would select a vendor for GIS software. In the past, the GIS marketplace may have been so simple that you could simply buy one of a few options. Certain marketing people still try to make you think it is that simple. Now, there are many layers of the industry.
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In earlier days, the size of the GIS market was batted
about to impress people. First it was millions, then hundred of
millions, then billions. Industry analysis is expensive (Daratech
charges $5950 for this report...) and the current figure is hard
to obtain. How many billion dollars depends on who you ask and
what question you ask them. Software sales and services in 2003
appear to be $1.75 billion, up 8% over last year. Total expenditures
on GIS operations may not appear if they are internal to corporations.
Suffice it to say, the GIS industry is here to stay. Some try
to argue about "what
is a GIS?" (1995) but this can get pretty futile...
I don't know what the future GIS software will look like, but they will call it Arc/Info...
A recent (14 November 2002) newsletter from GISmonitor provides a synopsis of the GIS software marketplace in 2001: ESRI 35%, Intergraph 13%, GE (was Smallworld) 7%, Autodesk 7%, ERDAS (now Leica) 6%, minor players like IBM at 5%, SICAD [German] 5%, Logica 3%, "Other" 14%. This comes from a Daratech report (press release). Basically, ESRI dominates the marketplace...
ESRI, [35%] ArcGIS
is the umbrella, best-established product: ARC/INFO
large installed base (220,000 clients claimed in 1999) (They claim
to be the
dominant software company but no longer over 50%; NOTE they
claim 1,000,000 users on a given day...), lots of functions, WAS
relational db + topology NOW (Version 8) "all relational"
- (curiously, it is also all object-oriented at the same time
which is a bit contradictory in some meanings of these terms...).
In the shift to ArcObjects [More
detail], the data models are now expected to be tailored to
each application
domain. Functions will grow even more as they integrate the
database side with SDE
(even adding
topology into SDE); their own
history page.
Intergraph [13%] now calls their line "GeoMedia" (a database server model). Their old document (from 1995) still describes MGE (topology and rdb: an architecture similar to ESRI's up to version 7.0) 100,000 (?) installations; strong base in CAD industry 100,000 MicroStation installations; manufactured hardware (bought Fairchild Clipper chip); now strong on Windows NT. Integrated Software Solutions was their buzzword, now it is "solutions" (Industry solutions).
Smallworld: [7%] a UK
company (now gobbled up by General
Electric Network Solutions, and the geographic software seems
to be totally hidden) with an object-oriented toolkit, strong
in the utility market. Really big on client-server architecture.
A quite revealing set of technical
papers, still available (everything else needs a password).
AutoDesk [7%] Installations you want? how about 800,000 AutoCAD's;
creating add-on markets, like Geo/SQL 1,800 installations,
tacks some GIS functionality onto the AutoCAD data input and display.
AutoCAD
MAP is an attempt to package these functions.
Leica Geosystems [6%]
ERDAS IMAGINE - a line
of products for "geographic imaging"; 2,000 installations;
(cooperate with ESRI) recently bought out, will see what happens.
[originally based on a predecessor of Map Package - also the origin
of Spatial Analyst]
(and mixed metaphors?)
Map Info: [6%] "location-based intelligence"?;45,000 installations; basically a desktop mapping package with some additions that make it capable for some (business?) markets. MapInfo Professional has full service capabilities (see System 9 below)
Genamap
(topology and rdb; integrated raster/vector; client server) 350
installations; currently selling "Open Systems" (was
AutoGIS then DeltaMap, bought out by some Australians; now repurchased
as Genasys II, Inc. now
only responding as Genamap Spain...) Their pages cannot be seen
outside IE, and not with any other windows open... Their overview
(strongly based on the OSI concepts).
Spans,
2,500 installations;a quadtree database now called Geomatica Advanced
GIS Module... (TYDAC, bought
out by same outfit that bought Genasys, PCI Enterprises, now called
PCI Geomatics (gets confusing to follow))
System 9 (Prime/Wild => Computervision=> Unisys (used
to be Univac) => MapInfo)
everything in relational db (Empress):3D coordinates everywhere but object relationships are built in memory, inheritance & complex features;
as a product on its own, it had huge promise, but the marketing never seemed to work.
Acquired by MapInfo and has become a part of their "Professional" top end product.
Graphics Design System (spun off from EDS, was MacDonnell
Douglas, written in UK) CAD based; 1,200 installations.
Manifold
GIS says that they deliver more for less... The system
they describe seems to be fairly complete, and for a price
of $245, it seems pretty incredible.
topoLogic from Geometria in Hungary, now Kolibri
from InterMap; a quadtree-indexed CAD system with some neat functionality;
30 installations. Site in Magyar, and IE-based...
[and hundreds of other tiny would-be contenders.]
MOSS (forerunner of Genasys product), obsolete
GRASS raster system
from US Army Corps of Engineers, now distributed by Baylor
in USA; no number of users, it is FREE on the net, open source,
now Linux based, ported to Windows and Mac OSX (originally Unix-based).
ArcView 1.0: ESRI's data viewer for Windows 3.0 free on the net
MAP
Package (the original source for Spatial Analyst) dates from
the 1970s. Rewritten dozens of times. Some versions free or really
cheap (on
a CD from AAG specialty group. pMap
is a quasi-commercial version. MFWorks
was MapFactory was MapII...
IDRISI, a grid package grown up, written at Clark University (not entirely cheap, still less than commercial rates.) (large market in overseas development projects)
The Desktop Marketplace was a big issue, now largely unimportant...
ESRI's ArcView 3.2 used Object-oriented programming (Avenue)
for the interface, but accesses either ARC/INFO files or `shapefiles',
not an object store. Now Avenue is scheduled to disappear, as
ESRI <though they still don't say so directly at the AV
site> moves from a self-written object environment to tie
closer to Microsoft COM.
The trend is towards a programmer's toolkit where these extensions
are available "unbundled", ArcObjects)
ESRI is beginning to sound like it has read the Smallworld white
papers (8 or 10 years later, but who is counting? - announcement).
The free ones are still there... like US
Census, Canadian Atlas, CEISIN Data
Viewer, etc.
Caliper
gets in the act.
ETAK (now TeleAtlas North America)
appears to be selling just data, not the software to serve it...
used to appear at Lycos and other hot spots.
ArcIMS
has survived as ESRI's solution to map servers; search
for web servers.
Intergraph
on servers