Mapinfo 10.0

[Glen]

MapInfo now requires the purchase of a MATS Plan with all new license
and upgrade purchases in addition to the prices quoted above.

Single User MATS Pricing Silver MATS Gold MATS
One Year $495.00 $660.00
Two Years $875.00 $1,210.00
Three Years $1,205.00 $1,650.00

how many here think mapinfo has good support?

I don't!

evil G

[college.atlas]

Glen,
Where are you in the world. Is this US or Australia? I am unaware of
this requirement.

On the supports side, I have had everything from stellar support to
absolute 0

In the absolute 0 cases I had to make calls to people I specifically
know at Mapinfo to worm my way through the management chain to get
action.

It's amazing what happens when you send a nicely worded email to every
@mapinfo or now @pb address in your address book simply asking "is
there anybody in support who can help me with this problem"

Mind you I've been using Mapinfo for 15 years and have been fortunate
to develop personal relationships with support staff who now hold
senior management positions in Australia and the US.

[Bill Thoen]

That extra pricing is a new thing here in the US, and it's real. But I
think it's worth it if you have to use MapInfo in mission-critical
projects and you find that it's a little over your head. When I was a
newbie at this, I bought the support and it was well worth it. Since my
business was focused on making maps, I considered it an essential cost
of doing business and didn't worry about it. (Of course that was back
when an upgrade cost $95 and the WWW was spelled BBS.)

But now I have enough experience to not need much support and can use
instant-info resources such as Google and forums like this one, as well
as personal (human) networks, to get better and faster answers than
MapInfo's tech support can deliver. So it feels a bit painful to
suddenly have to pay the full price for a service I don't need, on top
of an already hefty upgrade fee. Since everybody's got to have tech
support now, why does it cost the same as when it was optional and they
priced it for a market that was a fraction of "everybody"?
Nevertheless, I tell myself, it's still very good software and I still
need it for what I do so I guess I'll ante up again and try not to lose
sleep over it. (Grumble, grumble...) But I'm going to be spending a lot
more time in osgeo forums I think.

On a positive note, I sort of like what I read about some of the new
features; especially support for PostGIS as I'm beginning to use that
and PostgreSQL quite a bit now.

- Bill Thoen

[Richard Greenwood]

Whether MATS is worth the money or not isn't really the point. The
consumer has lost the option to choose. Now the only choice is to
upgrade or not. I like MapInfo, but I don't like having things forced
upon me.

Best regards,
Rich

--
Richard Greenwood
richard....@gmail.com
www.greenwoodmap.com

[David Reid]

Oh well, every coffin has to be nailed down I suppose. The high cost of
upgrades buried us out long ago. Charging for something we'd never use is
simply those nails in the coffin.

Come to think of it, I never had to contact Mapinfo tech support. I learned
by reading the "real paper back manual" that came with our initial purchase,
and reading "white papers" by our own Bill Thoen, Jacques Paris etal. And as
Bill said, through networking and probably the most help... The Mapinfo-L.
"Throw'em in, he'll learn to swim or else"

Eh, industry and peer pressure will probably force us to the dark side one
of these days anyway. :))

David Reid

[Tim Rideout]

If you are buying an upgrade you can buy it with or without MATS. So it is only with a full new copy that you pay for one year. The cost of MATS is less than the price of one upgrade. So in effect the support is a free bonus.

regards

Tim
Dr Timothy Rideout

The XYZ Digital Map Company,
32/9 Hardengreen Industrial Estate,
Dalkeith, EH22 3NX.

tim.r...@xyzmaps.com
Mobile +447766825937

[Glen]

Tim it's a Tax on everything

it's a quote taken from the sales letter

"all new software releases and upgrades"


http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/206332/02a848f64e/186001609/98af3fd584/

[Tim Rideout]

Hi, well I can't speak for the USA, but we are MapInfo dealers in the UK
and over here you can buy an upgrade either with or without MATS (unless
something has changed in the last week or two that we have not been told
about).

Regards

Tim

Dr Tim Rideout
Director

See Earth - the Limited Edition World Atlas at http://shop.xyzmaps.com.
Only 200 will be sold in the UK. The largest Atlas ever published with
570 pages of maps and stunning images. We are proud to say XYZ supplied
the Europe map spreads. Orders are now being taken for the next
consignment here
Visit XYZ at the Frankfurt Book Fair, October 13-16th 2009
The XYZ Digital Map Company
Unit 9-11 Hardengreen Bus.Pk.
Dalhousie Road,
Dalkeith,
EH22 3NX
Tele: +44 (0) 131 454 0426
Mobile: +44 (0) 7766 825937
Fax: +44 131 454 0443
Email: tim.r...@xyzmaps.com
Web: www.xyzmaps.com

-----Original Message-----
From: mapi...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mapi...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Glen
Sent: 26 June 2009 13:31
To: MapInfo-L
Subject: [MI-L] Re: Mapinfo 10.0

[Barbara Carroll]

From the previous posts, it seems to me that MapInfo is alienating the long
time users of MapInfo rather than supporting them.

Best Regards,
Barbara Carroll