Burj Dubai: Seeking New Heights

I’m a big fan of tall buildings.

They take up less space (horizontal space, that is).

So I was excited to see the recent unveiling of the new Burj Dubai tower, which stands some 828 meters (2,717 feet) and said to be “seeable” from up to 95 kilometers away.

The new United Arab Emirates building brings with it several records, including tallest building in the world, the building with the most stories, the building with the highest occupied space, the highest observation deck in the world (on the 124th floor), and, of course, the world’s tallest structure.

Stefania Bianchi provides a view from the top in the Wall Street Journal “Speakeasy” blog, explaining that at the media opening of the skydeck on Monday, “you could also just make out the undeveloped islands that make up the offshore Dubai World project that is synonymous with the sheikdom’s collapsing real estate industry.”

Bring a harsh to that buzz, why don’t ya?

There’s no word yet as to when my apartment in the Burj will be ready, but I’m cautiously optimistic.

And so is Google.

About their new Nexus One handset, which is being formally announced today.

Has Google played some serious poker with the American telco industry or what?

First, they bid on wireless spectrum that helped force the telcos’ hands in keeping that spectrum open to other “services”.

Then they make deals with all the major wireless carriers to support the Android platform as a FUD hedge against the iPhone and a head fake to Microsoft.

And now that the deals are done and they have more insight into the operations of the wireless players, they play them at their own game with an end around, the unlocked Nexus One, which was built specifically to Google’s specs and sets up a potential wireless free-for-all as consumers start to buy separate service plans that could very well lead to the commodification and a la cartization (new word) of the American mobile industry.

In the meantime, Google closes the AdMob deal and makes a gazillion new dollars selling mobile advertising to the GPS chocolatte masses.

Rock on.

As IT analyst Nicholas Carr was quoted as saying in today’s New York Times, “You could take a view that this [Google] is a very geeky company…That underestimates the strategy that underlies all these moves.”

Of course, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has recently stepped up its review of the AdMob deal, and in any case, I think Google may be overestimating folks’ receptivity to an overabundance of advertising in what are viewed to be some very personal devices.

That, of course, won’t slow them down.

In any case, with a view of all this from the top of the world, it sure is a fun poker game to watch!