MapPoint Still Stands Alone

MapPoint 2004, the latest version of Microsoft’s business mapping application, is targeted at Office users who occasionally need an easy way to locate addresses or visualize and analyze mapped data, such as highlighting sales territories or plotting revenue per territory. Available in North American and European editions, MapPoint 2004 is nearly functionally identical to MapPoint 2002, but contains updated map data, and the North American version comes with twice as much demographic data as its predecessor. Unfortunately, MapPoint 2004 does not link to Microsoft’s MapPoint Web Service, nor does it have any way to download and install updated data.

Expanded Data, Higher Price

The North American version of MapPoint 2004 contains nearly 300 demographic and consumer profile variables for the United States and Canada, assembled from data supplied by Applied Geographic Solutions, CompuSearch, and Simmons Market Research. Business listings and other points of interest have jumped to 1.4 million from 800,000. These data allow users to perform more types of geographic-oriented analyses without needing to purchase additional data, which are often expensive.