Aerial imagery company Nearmap Ltd (ASX: NEA) announced this morning that it had begun capturing oblique imagery in the USA and Australia.
The company will then 'stitch together' these oblique images to create 'not only high resolution 2D and oblique imagery but also surface and terrain models, natural colour point clouds and textured 3D meshes.'
This is a feature of the company's new HyperCamera 2, which has been in development for a while now. According to this morning's announcement, 50% of the US population and Australia's 5 largest cities will be captured by Nearmap's new camera by 31 December 2017. Approximately 70% of the US population has already been captured under the company's 2D imagery program.
This means that the second half of financial year 2018, and especially financial year 2019, could see a big uptick in sales if customers jump on board the company's latest offering – assuming that there are no technical gremlins or other delays which may occur. The rollout of oblique imagery is an important new product for the company, and existing customers may be quick to take up the offering, given their apparent open-ness to upselling from Nearmap in the past.
However, like the company's original 2D capture program, in the main I expect the 3D imagery to take a while to catch on.
In the past, it has appeared as though Nearmap's imagery is 'a product looking for a purpose', so to speak, in that tradition-bound customers have not realised the possibilities of Nearmap's software in their own business. However, this is gradually changing and the company is showing that it can add customers.
With Nearmap continuing to grow in the US and Australia, I feel that the company is an attractive, albeit high-risk prospect at today's prices.
