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From what little information I've been able to find on MapPoint 2004's license agreement, it appears that an application being branded a "fleet application" depends on whether or not it is "near real time". I've seen two different figures for "near real time", one being a 15 second delay and the other being a 60 second delay between the time a location device sends a report and the time that report is displayed to the user.

Maybe I'm wrong, but the way I'm understanding the EULA, it seems that I could legally create a monitoring application with MapPoint that guarantees a 15 or 60 second delay without having to worry about the rest of the restrictions since it would no longer be a "fleet application". Am I right, or have I oversimplified things?

Also, none of these restrictions apply to MapPoint 2002, correct?

Jeff,

I have tried to get answers from Microsoft but they will not respond. I even called Navtech and they got back to me. From this discussion I was lead to believe, there are three primary issues with the new EULA and you must be in compliance with all three of them. I think your real time or non-realtime is the smallest problem. Although things can change, here is my interpretation.

1) I think you are correct, as long as the "fleet application" is not real time, you are ok. A 15 second delay is required. I was also told that ad-on applications such as Mobile GPS Online that update the location faster will be illegal.

2) There is a limit of 50 vehicles per fleet. MapPoint can only be used for small fleets. Hard to make a living with only the small companies.

3) The biggest issue is that now each vehicle being tracked will require a license. At a $200 each, a fleet of 25 vehicles and one desktop went from $200 to $5,000. For $5K I expect a lot more then MapPoint provides.

These issues have forced me to look at other options. Anyone else found a good mapping solution for North America?

Grant

MapPoint 2002 .

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Well, that stinks...I was hoping that I could get away with creating a guaranteed delay of at least 15 seconds and that alone would keep my app from being designated as a fleet application. I guess I'll be sticking with MP 2002 for now.

Thanks for sharing that with me though, Grant. If you come across a better solution than MapPoint, let me know. MapPoint's programming interface is frustrating (to say the least) and the only reason we have continued to use it is due to the map quality...the maps that MapPoint generates are much more pleasing than some of the other products we've worked with. If I could find something better, I'd switch in a heartbeat.

There are a bunch of different choices out there but not as nice as MP, I have found a bunch and tested them , the real problem is that I built an application on Microsoft technology as a "benefit" to my customer, now it seems like a huge mistake.

All I want to do is provide a good solution at a good price and Microsoft is trying to force us to their .NET scheme.

I've been looking for an alternative as well. Wasted alot of time looking at MapInfo and ESRI, both ended up wanting a fortune for their software and then you needed to buy the maps seperatley. But last week I came across AltaMap by GeoMicro and ordered an eval disc. Although it was a bit more difficult to install, one tech support call got me up and running.

The product is called AltaMap and is a suite of componants. It provides nice map display, geocoding, routing and maps. Seems to do everthing MapPoint does and more. Pricing was good and no per vehicle licenses. Go to www.geomicro.com.

John