With a Windows client already under its belt courtesy of a MapX OLE control, fast-growing MapInfo Corp is readying a Java module for introduction in July that’ll enable users to navigate database information from browsers and other Java clients. Now positioned as a data visualization concern, MapInfo, which supplies software for displaying geographic data, wants to make the data warehouse and online analytical processing market its own. It has already gotten Andyne Computing Ltd to integrate MapX into a forthcoming release of its query and reporting tools that’ll enable users to visualize and navigate information sucked up from a database or data warehouse. It has other OEM deals with OLAPer Pilot Software Inc and relational OLAP company Information Advantage Inc. It has developed middleware which enables geographically-coded objects – such as details of roads, rivers, a town, houses or telephone lines, to be stored and defined in Oracle and Informix databases, including their respective Universal Server object-relational offerings which offer support for extended data types. A SpatialWare DataBlade for use with Informix Universal server will ship July. MapInfo claims to be more focused on desktop mapping software than its closest competitors which it says only do GIS software as part of other businesses. In its opinion, ESRI Inc, the Redlands, California- based maker of ArcView software is primarily focused on consulting and government markets and gives its stuff away; Intergraph Corp and AutoDesk Inc technologies are simply extensions of their core CAD/CAM businesses. Only ESRI offers similar kinds of spatial extensions as MapInfo. $45m MapInfo is up to 400 staff; its SpatialWare business, an Unisys Corp spin- out, has 40 people.
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