The answer is not to find the centre point amongst a group of points and then call mapController.zoomToSpan(centrePoint). Instead, do the following in your ItemizedOverlay:
public void calculateMapBounds()
{
int minLat = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
int minLon = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
int maxLat = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
int maxLon = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
for (LocatorPosition position : mPositions)
{
minLat = Math.min(position.getLatitudeE6(), minLat);
minLon = Math.min(position.getLongitudeE6(), minLon);
maxLat = Math.max(position.getLatitudeE6(), maxLat);
maxLon = Math.max(position.getLongitudeE6(), maxLon);
}
spanLat = maxLat - minLat;
spanLon = maxLon - minLon;
}
Then call mapController.zoomToSpan(spanLat, spanLon);