Autodesk is specifically seeking wireless carriers or network operators, hardware and device makers, portals and gateways, hosting services, and developers of consumer and business applications. So far as I know, Autodesk does not have its own geocoding engine, leading me to believe plans to build or buy this technology are in the works, or are already complete. We can look to Autodesk s history in providing services for clues about its future. Autodesk GIS did not, in my opinion, move from being a product company to a services company very well. The number of staff and partners available for MapGuide implementations never seemed sufficient to service potential customers.
Vision seems to have suffered a similar fate.
In contrast, consider the success of Smallworld as a technology and services provider. Or the extensive ESRI staff devoted to consulting. The new division will need to be service oriented from the start. Since LBS appears to have taken MapGuide, and Autodesk World is no longer in development, the GIS Solutions Divison is left with AutoCAD Map, Vision and its new incarnation, the Autodesk GIS Design Server. AutoCAD Map is perhaps best known as the engine underlying Land Development Desktop, Autodesk's civil, survey and engineering solution.