Virtual Earth is no longer a platform limited to Microsoft's cloud. In this context, the Redmond giant announced that it is making VE content available outside of the service. Starting August 25, 2008, Virtual Earth UltraCam (proprietary) aerial photography can be licensed independently of the license for the VE platform. According to Microsoft, MapMart and i-Cubed are the two vendors offering aerial imagery from Virtual Earth designed for integration with offline applications, interfaces and clients.

"VE's hi-resolution UltraCam ortho imagery is prized for GIS, urban planning, engineering and other applications that are often performed in an offline desktop environment, yet our existing VE offerings prohibit any offline use of our data," revealed Virtual Earth Technical Evangelist, Chris Pendleton. "By offering our data in an offline mode, we complement our online VE web service offerings, increase VE brand awareness worldwide, and generate revenues."

Pendleton indicated that the availability of hi-resolution UltraCam content via the pair of resellers is nothing more than Microsoft's first step in the monetization of the Virtual Earth platform. The Redmond company's geospatial products are set up to integrate exclusively with offline applications and will involve only Virtual Earth's UltraCam ortho photographs. Microsoft applauded the collaboration with both i-Cubed and MapMart as resellers of Virtual Earth UltraCam aerial imagery, and pointed out that the new initiative is addressed at the public sector (municipalities, emergency response agencies, and utilities) but also at the private sector (engineering companies).

"Currently we have over 200 cities of mosaicked color airborne imagery collected at 6" nominal resolution, averaging less than two years old. The 6" spatial resolution rivals any large-scale commercial source today, and our newest processing techniques produce orthomosaics with almost no building lean in the image- invaluable for unobstructed views into areas with tall buildings, etc. As Microsoft acquires and processes imagery for more cities around the world, the archive is expected to grow substantially," Pendleton stated.