Deprecation of Utility
The print map industry used to be big business. Everyone needed maps to keep in their cars whenever they were going on long trips. The more detailed, the better, because you didn't want to end up someplace and not be able to figure out where you were. And you had to buy new ones every few years because sometimes things changed, and you didn't want to be driving around looking for Sao Paulo Street only to learn the name had been changed to Gondola Street two years ago.
Now, we use GPS, Google Maps, and the mapping applications that come on our smart phones.
The print map industry died because of the Internet; not an original story, but the slow bleeding out of large print map companies happened out of view of the general public. Unless you worked for a print map company, you probably never gave it a second thought. It's not like the music industry and the RIAA, which has intellectual property arguments on their side. With no way of claiming copyright over cartography, the print map industry was stuck without anybody they could sue. And so they perished quietly, without much of a fight.
I met a DJ at a party recently who came with digital equipment for spinning. Among his things was a large box of LPs, which didn't serve any purpose, save for people thumbing through them and remarking about the corniness of past musical acts like Wham! I asked the DJ about the market for records, and told me, "Actually, the market for LPs is stronger than that of CDs. It's growing more than CDs, anyway...CDs are dying off, but people are buying more LPs because they're a collector's item."
What he said might not be an entirely accurate statement, but I believe that where he buys the bulk of his LPs—in the used music shops in Los Angeles—it's likely a very observable trend. This makes sense...there's no good reason for CDs. They just happened to the best the most convenient way of acquiring, storing, and playing music before MP3s and always-on Internet connections came along. The utility is gone.
Naturally, LPs are pretty useless as well, since they wear out, they're large and fragile, and I really have no idea where I'd acquire a turntable if I had to buy one tomorrow. There's no convenience there.
People buy LPs for one very simple reason: novelty. To some extent, this is true of CDs as well. I went to a concert last week, and the vendor was selling the artist's CDs right along with the T-shirts. No practical reason to buy the CD...I could get the music for half the price on iTunes, and the disc itself will just be clutter that I'll eventually throw away. But I almost bought one for the novelty of buying it, having it (for a while), and supporting the artist. (Something similar could be said of the T-shirts.)
MapQuest was around for years before Google Maps came along, but Google's version won out because they acquired Keyhole and offered satellite imagery, and worked in Ajax-enabled click and drag. MapQuest was practical. Google was novel.
The print map industry isn't going to come back anytime soon, simply because few people want to buy a paper map for any practical reason. But eople might buy maps printed on silk or shiny soft polyester. They might buy hologram maps. Just a few months ago I bought some postcard maps created with lenticular printing for my little cousin that changed from day to night.
I think potential pockets of untapped novelty are hidden everywhere...not just for print maps. It's a strategy worth considering just because there's usually already someone else trying very hard to offer the most utility.
Now, we use GPS, Google Maps, and the mapping applications that come on our smart phones.
The print map industry died because of the Internet; not an original story, but the slow bleeding out of large print map companies happened out of view of the general public. Unless you worked for a print map company, you probably never gave it a second thought. It's not like the music industry and the RIAA, which has intellectual property arguments on their side. With no way of claiming copyright over cartography, the print map industry was stuck without anybody they could sue. And so they perished quietly, without much of a fight.
I met a DJ at a party recently who came with digital equipment for spinning. Among his things was a large box of LPs, which didn't serve any purpose, save for people thumbing through them and remarking about the corniness of past musical acts like Wham! I asked the DJ about the market for records, and told me, "Actually, the market for LPs is stronger than that of CDs. It's growing more than CDs, anyway...CDs are dying off, but people are buying more LPs because they're a collector's item."
What he said might not be an entirely accurate statement, but I believe that where he buys the bulk of his LPs—in the used music shops in Los Angeles—it's likely a very observable trend. This makes sense...there's no good reason for CDs. They just happened to the best the most convenient way of acquiring, storing, and playing music before MP3s and always-on Internet connections came along. The utility is gone.
Naturally, LPs are pretty useless as well, since they wear out, they're large and fragile, and I really have no idea where I'd acquire a turntable if I had to buy one tomorrow. There's no convenience there.
People buy LPs for one very simple reason: novelty. To some extent, this is true of CDs as well. I went to a concert last week, and the vendor was selling the artist's CDs right along with the T-shirts. No practical reason to buy the CD...I could get the music for half the price on iTunes, and the disc itself will just be clutter that I'll eventually throw away. But I almost bought one for the novelty of buying it, having it (for a while), and supporting the artist. (Something similar could be said of the T-shirts.)
MapQuest was around for years before Google Maps came along, but Google's version won out because they acquired Keyhole and offered satellite imagery, and worked in Ajax-enabled click and drag. MapQuest was practical. Google was novel.
The print map industry isn't going to come back anytime soon, simply because few people want to buy a paper map for any practical reason. But eople might buy maps printed on silk or shiny soft polyester. They might buy hologram maps. Just a few months ago I bought some postcard maps created with lenticular printing for my little cousin that changed from day to night.
I think potential pockets of untapped novelty are hidden everywhere...not just for print maps. It's a strategy worth considering just because there's usually already someone else trying very hard to offer the most utility.