Troy, New York-based MapInfo Corp reports from its Bracknell, Berkshire bas that it has launched a new version of its Windows desktop mapping software with Object Linking & Embedding support and built-in client-server communications. MapInfo Professional version 4.0 now enables users to perform geographic queries against server databases and supports simultaneous access and display of multiple distributed databases. The company claims that the worldwide market for mapping systems will hit $1,000m by the end of the decade, and that 90% of businesses data includes a geographical location. MapInfo has also announced improvements to its desktop mapping development environment, MapBasic, with the addition of communications to widely-used development environments including Visual Basic, PowerBuilder and C++. MapInfo Professional and the MapBasic Development Environment will ship this month, for ú1,100 and ú670 respectively. Upgrades go for ú155 and ú200 until the end of February, and cost ú235 and ú300 thereafter.
