Regarding DeLorme’s StreeMap decision

Delorme, maker of fine paper and electronic atlases, is discontinuing development for Mac products. Here’s my response:

I’ve read your announcement regarding the discontinuation of support for Mac Products. I’m quite upset, because I’ve been a DeLorme customer for years, and have purchased copies of Street Atlas 3 and 6 for Mac.

I want to thank you for these products, but also share my disappointment in the discontinuation of Mac development. It seems that it would be better long range planning to create software that was in a format that was platform independent, rather than continue with the current model of develop once, then redevelop for different OSes. A platform independent standard would allow for the use of the same material on Macs, PCs, other OSes, and the Web with little or no customization.

As an example, the US Census data used in the 2003 version of Street Atlas, is available in a platform-independent format. I understand that to protect the investment of time and creativity, that you must make some changes to the format. However, I will be somewhat jealous of my PC using counterparts for this reason only. Thank you for your time, and I hope you’ll consider us Mac users in the future.

Sincerely,
Andy Freed