Maptitude is the Alternative to MapPoint

The flagship Microsoft mapping product, MapPoint, has been discontinued. MapPoint was very good at what it offered such as offline routing and basic business analytics, and will be missed by at least some users.

MapPoint and Maptitude have provided location-intelligence tools since the early days of mapping software, but many MapPoint users felt neglected due to the two year update cycle, outdated demographic data, and limited capabilities. Maptitude, however, has had major software and data releases on an increasingly frequent basis.

Maptitude, developed by US-based Caliper, is proud to continue in the space vacated by Microsoft. Maptitude is a full featured business mapping application and is used by many organizations, including those that don't want their data stored remotely, or who need unlimited offline geocoding and address-matching tools. The Maptitude customer base also benefits from not having to pay annual/monthly subscription fees for cloud services because they can simply choose a one-off software purchase. With the departure of MapPoint, Maptitude (US$695) is the only value-priced desktop mapping software player left standing.

With the discontinuation of MapPoint there will be one significant benefit: business mapping will no longer rely on outdated information. When using Maptitude you will be using new data for new location-based decisions. Maptitude has the latest features and demographics, including the annual updates to nationwide counts from the U.S. Census and American Community Survey (ACS). There are many other benefits when you use Maptitude as an alternative to MapPoint, and these are compared side-by-side here.

MapPoint Europe and AutoRoute are also coming to an end. Maptitude can assist users "across the pond" as well as across the globe! There are now 20 Country Packages available for Maptitude, and Caliper is excited to be able to bring the power and flexibility of our Maptitude product suite to a global audience and to enable our customers to make geo-location based decisions internationally.

The retirement of MapPoint has a silver lining for your organization: a migration to Maptitude for more accurate maps coupled with better location-based analytics!

Featured Maptitude Map: States with the Most Movie Theaters Per Person (USA)

This map, made with Maptitude 2014, highlights regional variations in access to movie theaters. States with more movie theaters per capita are shown taller and in dark blue, states with fewer movie theaters per capita are shown lower and in pale blue.

According to the most recent UNESCO survey, China has climbed from 6th place in terms of box office revenue in 2005 to 3rd place behind the USA and Japan.

In the USA and Canada, attendance has actually softened for a decade while there has been a loss of small theaters that couldn't convert to digital.

There are many barriers to opening new cinemas, including the high costs of purchasing and operating equipment such as digital projectors, screens and speakers. Establishing modern auditoriums is expensive, as is the rent and utilities costs of a multiscreen complex.

The US is less likely to see growth in the total number of theaters but will have bigger and newer types of cinemas that boost demand and support increases in ticket prices. Such trends include extra-large movie screens, niche genre or 2nd- or 3rd-run film theaters, and technologies like 3-D.

Contact Caliper to access extensive map and business data. Caliper can provide data such as the cinema totals by state used here, as well as business counts, by size, for hundreds of industries. When used with the Maptitude 2014 USA Country Package you can create the maps that tell the story your spreadsheets can't (more...).  

Tech Tip: How do I identify high growth areas?

Maptitude includes a wealth of data that you can use to create new variables using the flexible formula building tools included with the software. For example, Maptitude provides data on age, race, gender, and ethnicity for 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2020. By exploring the differences in these values it is easy to visualize growth.

By using the estimates and projections, you can perform a variety of analyses including examining where to invest in housing, determining where to target new market expansions or market disinvestment, identify future franchise sales territories and retail catchments, and define targets and benchmarks.  

International: 2014 Peru Country Package Released

Caliper is excited to announce the release of the 2014 Country Package for Peru. The product includes the latest map updates for streets, boundaries, towns, and for comprehensive named landmarks that range from public facilities to commercial buildings including shops, restaurants, and retail stores!

Tricks & Tips: Turn Off Snapping When Moving Labels

Maptitude makes it easy to customize the labels displayed in maps. When you use the Custom Labels tool to move a label, Maptitude will automatically try to align it to other previously moved labels. As you move a label, Maptitude displays a dashed line indicating the label it will be aligned to.

There are times when you may not want to align the label you are moving. For example, Maptitude aligns the labels based on the longitude and latitude. Therefore, depending on the map projection, the labels may not be aligned the way you want them.

You can turn off snapping behavior simply by pressing the Space Bar while you move a label. You can then drag the label exactly where you want it to display.