[tinco]

It's hard to get an understanding of the precise algorithm that's being used to generate the code. If it were a competitor of the postcode it would have to be possible to identify whether two places are close to eachother just by looking at the code right?

From the patent I get the feeling that it's a bit like a C-ary space partitioning, where C is 36 (alphabet+numbers). So the first character divides the earth in 36 regions, the second character divides that region in 36 regions, and so on.

With that in mind, I think once people would be a bit familiar with the general numbers for regions it would be pretty easy to identify what general region a mapcode would be in. So it might be a pretty good replacement of postcodes.

Or am I missing some other fundamental property of postcodes?

[orbifold]

I think that postcodes divide a country not evenly but are chosen by population density and the distribution structure of the post provider. Look at http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Karte_Bri... for example, each distribution center is responsible for one or two double digit prefixes, the first digit roughly indicates the region. Areas with high population density have a much finer coverage. I don't think there would be any benefit from switching to Map Codes, as they have to be mapped to something like post codes anyways and they are not precise enough to serve as residential addresses.