Google Geo - the Gosh-gollies?

Just how is ESRI doing these days?  I can hardley wait for yet another UC for them in San Diego where we can put our buck down to help debug the next tread on their products?

As some of you may know Google Earth/Maps had an announcement today about their Earth and Map products.  The under-current about this announcement is that given the rumor that next week Apple will also provide an answer to their community regarding their abandonment of Google Maps for a home-grown "Apple" mapping solution, no one even mentioned ESRI.  Given the "rumorology" that seems to always bubble-up around the unknowns at Apple and its "geo" interests, well, the Apple-tweeters and others are looking to pull over anything that Apple challenges.  So the most noteable that I have seen -

photorealistic 3-D mapping tech Apple acquired when it purchased C3 Technologies  "old news"

or

Google announces that it is scared of Apple Maps "darned I hope my Apple solution is as good?"

But given that there now seems to be two giants taking real runs not just at the mapping app but at the entire ecology of map-making, well I have to wonder where Jack and friends may be?  Seems that the July ESRI-ites clan gathering in San Diego may simply review 10.1 that was "supposed" to be released last Fall... just in time to become available for testing via its annual maintenance fees and agreements?

Esri has bought a company called Procedural that gives Esri now 3D content creation tools that are used in movies such as Cars 2. Clearly this is a huge move for Esri and could put them in markets they haven’t been in before.  ArcGIS Runtime is new at 10.1 and is a new “MapObjects” type development platform. ArcGIS Online is an “open platform” for maps and geographic information. From desktop, to server to “cloud”. The thing about ArcGIS Online vs GEB is that Esri sees their analytic tools are their secret sauce that will take other companies year (if ever <>) to replicate. ArcGIS Online could be their standard geospatial analytical visualization engine moving forward. Nothing else is this deep or this usable. Sorry guys, Esri moved the bar way forward… << Who me worried? >> Jack says this Fall, you can host your maps in ArcGIS Online that you author in your ArcGIS Desktop content creation tools. 10.1 will integrate ArcGIS Online into the whole package.    I get how this is critical for many organizations to integrate their Esri silo ArcGIS Server instances into company intranet websites. Esri is the link between their GIS Professionals and the world. 10.1 Beta will arrive in 2012 ....    Spatially Adjusted - JUL 11TH, 2011