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The main practical use I'm aware of for the product relates to enforcement by various authorities.
For example, Nearmap makes it very easy for your local council to know exactly when that new extension was built and whether or not it had approval. No arguing there.
There are similar applications relating to insurance, the electricity industry and others. Basically for anyone who wants to prove when something outdoors was done, there's huge value in regularly updated aerial photos. Police might have a use for it too I would think.
I'm 100% certain that electricity distributors are using it in some areas. Not sure about the others but there are obvious applications.
It would be difficult to imagine google flying weekly or monthly to update their image service for nothing. Just can't see the point in that. If you use google earth, many of the satellite photos for Australia's areas are 3-5 years old or more. The cost of updating and managing the systems has to be paid for and for the data to be integrated into the geo-spatial mapping software it is highly advantageous. This niche would not suit google's approach of applying technology to mass markets. Of course this may change and perhaps it will. They may also seek to just take NEA software, licensing and customer base by just taking it over and then re-branding.
Google has agreed to acquire map-software provider Waze for about $US1.1 billion, a person with knowledge of the deal said, seeking to keep competitors such as Facebook from eroding its lead in mobile-navigation programs.
Any possibilty of Facebook having a peek at NEA?
Though not in the same category as Waze.
http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/google-aquires-waze-for-us11b-sources-20130610-2nz31.html
Take a look at NEA's product and you'll see it is not a mass consumer product. It's a specialist mapping service for companies that need high resolution, regularly updated aerial photography. It's highly unlikely that FB would be at all interested in it.
No but there's probably a single use / single area licence that will interest a lot of consumers / SMEs.
I am house hunting at the moment and it would be great to have access to HD recent images rather than grainy Google map image when the house isn't even built yet.
I am house hunting at the moment and it would be great to have access to HD recent images rather than grainy Google map image when the house isn't even built yet.
Why would you pay for that the agent photos should be good enough ..
Which house you want to capture ....Get a $700 drone that can flight up to 50m to take photos of any place
In HD image -
The agents photos are inside, not arerial view.
With aerial photographs you can check out the state of the roof, verify building area, estimate amount of lawn to be mowed, see if the neighbours look after their grounds etc etc.
I'd be happy to pay $50-60 for say 1 week of access to a 2km radius area or something. It's nothing in the scheme of buying a house.
Although I have no idea how big this market is or how much it'd cost to provide such a product offering...
P.S. Speaking of real-estate agent photos.. The use of super wide angle lens is getting ridiculous. A small room can be turned into a spacious loung. Sometimes they stretch things so much that the flatscreen TV at the corner looks like it's 80 inches. They are really pushing my definition of what consititue fair representation.
I don't agree with the dismissals of the service that could be available.
It will become something that investors will value as an extra piece of information.
Imagine looking at buying a development property in XYZ street which is on a major corridor near the city.
You want to know what developments have taken place, how large, when and what their areas are.
With this service you just scroll through and track the changes in the area over the last X years. You can then identify what the trend is for the area, where people are moving, what the council is encouraging in the area and where the money is going.
I have seen all this presented by some of the big investment companies in the past, but they combine it with all sorts of data overlays - this information is worth a lot.
Some people are happy with google yes, some people want as much information as possible before making large financial commitments.
Overall, NEA is offering an excellent product which I expect is still seeing growth in the market. Future single user licenses, whether readers here would use it or not, will sell - just how it is controlled and to what extent is unknown.
I don't doubt that their product is excellent, I doubt how big the market really is. For instance, how many property investors are going to examine aerial photography to assist in their decision making? Most share investors use things like newspapers and journals to find shares to buy and I wouldn't be surprised if property investors were the same. Original ideas for the average investor are not common. So, imo, NEA's product will remain a small niche.
People on forums like this will tend to overestimate what the average person will do before making an investment.
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