Microsoft Australia has today announced the local launch of MapPoint Web Service 3.5 with the bold guarantee of uptime of 99.9 percent.


Microsoft told delegates at the Tech Ed event in Canberra that they could guarantee the near 100 percent uptime or customers could be reimbursed five times the transactions missed.
Already available in 25 other countries, the Australian release will allow local developers to write to the Web service to deploy location-based applications for Web sites, mobile phones, PDAs and Tablet PCs.
MapPoint program manager, Steve Lombardi admitted that while "it doesn't do the what the high end products do," MapPoint is designed to make mapping more affordable for Web and mobile application development.
Unlike many of Microsoft's products and services MapPoint Web Service 3.5 is based on the open XML and SOAP standards and will be available to use for Java, open source, Linux and other developers working on non-Microsoft platforms.
"Any environment that can use Web services can use these applications," Lombardi told delegates at the conference.
The program manager also hyped another new technology that will be available in Australia early next year -- Microsoft Location Server, a service that will be hosted by enterprises to track employees and inventory via a mapping service with PDAs and mobile phones. Microsoft is currently trialling the technology with a large media company in the US to help journalists track breaking stories.
Prices for MapPoint Web Service 3.5 are set to be scaled by the volume of transactions consumed. MSDN subscribers will receive a one year free trial of the Web Service, including commercial development.
Developers from across the Tasman will have to wait a further six months for the release to include maps of New Zealand.

SOA in action
It is often way that new trends start small and, if service orientation is to be the new trend as many believe, then we may well see its start as a practical reality in the coming together of related product groups. And example of this can be seen in the newly announced partnership between Microsoft and online mapping and location-based solutions provider, Multimap.The pair have signed a non-exclusive worldwide partnership deal to accelerate the delivery of solutions based on Microsoft's MapPoint Web Service. Multimap will add Microsoft's MapPoint Web Service to its service portfolio, which supports SOAP and XML, to enable the integration of location-based services such as maps, driving directions and proximity searches into applications and business processes. The MapPoint Service can then be integrated with other XML-based web services, allowing enterprises to gain business value from incorporating location data into their applications and processes.Under the agreement, Multimap will integrate and resell Microsoft MapPoint Web services with its Storefinder and dealer locator services. Multimap will continue to provide solutions based on its own online mapping platform. The collaboration also extends to new MapPoint offerings including the recently announced MapPoint Location Server.www.Multimap.com
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