Getting on the map

A recent advertising flyer from Life Tech seems to borrow from the GoogleMap of next-gen sequencers by suggesting to their community to "get on the map". The backdrop to the ad is a map of the world with highlighted areas where the reader might assume an Ion PGM is located (although the ad does not specifically claim this).

Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery:
The Ion Torrent backdrop locations match reasonably closely to the data on the GoogleMap (added by PGM owners) with respect to numbers of PGM machines by continental location.

From http://www.iontorrent.com/community

Ion Torrent PGMs on the GoogleMap

Here is a comparison of the two sources:
North America 36 (ad) vs 39 (map)
South America 2 vs 0
Europe 31 vs 26
Africa NA (not visible) vs 2
Asia/India 21 vs 6
Australia 7 vs 17

I am all for encouraging users to register on the map and we have tended to get feedback that coverage is quite representative if only 60-70% of actual machines installations.

We will be updating the site in the next few months and I'd encourage you to add your facility or update it with your new toys.

We'd also be happy to get feedback from users about what they want to see on the map in the future.