back to article Brits swallow Google Nexus 4 supply 'in 30 minutes'

Google's Nexus 4 is said to have been snapped up within 30 minutes of its UK release this morning. Getting hold of a Glastonbury ticket would have been easier, apparently. The handset's affordable price obviously had masses eager with the Visa, ready to splash either £239 for an 8GB or £279 for a 16GB version. Google's Play …

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  1. Alex Walsh

    It was a joke. Ten minutes late to launch,followed by half an hour of timing out, lock ups, one almost complete payment process, and it now looks like no Nexus 4 for me today or in the foreseeable future. And to add insult to injury, I've just got my email from Google notifying me it's available for sale :/

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Oh no...

      ....what will you do now?

      Quick the End of the World is nigh. All hands to the pumps. Abandon all hope all ye that enter here.

      Or you could just wait a little longer and get on with life, it's not like there won't be any more is it?

      1. bob 46

        Re: Oh no...

        Why are you being a dick? He isn't fawning over the thing, or saying he can't go on without one. He's just reporting on the poor experience he had trying to buy a nexus.

    2. Shagbag

      What's the fuss? I had no problems.

      I got online after 5mins and successfully ordered 20. They should all be here tomorrow and I'll list them on eBay and make £££s.

      1. ssmmdd
        Stop

        Re: What's the fuss? I had no problems.

        Oh great. It's people like you that, due to your greed, buy loads of the item & make people pay extra to fill your fat pockets then let them get it at the correct price from Google. I hope one day it comes around and bites you right in the arse.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What's the fuss? I had no problems.

        Then you woke up.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If it was Apple

      they'd need 14 days to change the wording of "In Stock" to "Coming Soon"

      1. Scorchio!!
        Thumb Up

        Re: If it was Apple

        Indeed, but it is a horse of the same colour albeit a lighter shade. Me, I'll stick to my Dell Streak and my Huawei. I don't know what the fuss is about.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      ?

      Wondering why anybody would down-vote Alex Walsh's post?

    5. Whitter

      email?

      At least you got the email. It hasn't turned up for me yet. P'haps yahoo have blocked them all as spam...?

      1. Whitter
        Boffin

        Re: email?

        Reply to myself eh? Madness. But interestingly enough, Yahoo DID put Google's email into the spam folder!

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      Quit the whining.... At least you can buy them in your country at the discounted price via the Google store. Others (yes like me) aren't so fortunate.

    7. This post has been deleted by its author

    8. AlbertH
      FAIL

      It was a joke. Ten minutes late to launch,followed by half an hour of timing out, lock ups, one almost complete payment process, and it now looks like no Nexus 4 for me today or in the foreseeable future. And to add insult to injury, I've just got my email from Google notifying me it's available for sale :/

      So what do you expect when you use Internet Explorer?

    9. Version 1.0 Silver badge

      US version

      The US site started offering the phones about 10 minutes before 11am PST ... but kept going up and down like a yo-yo ... after a couple of minutes I managed to get a couple of 8Mb phones into the cart and click "pay" but after that nothing ...

      It's back to "coming soon" again ... and I shaved my ***** for this?

      1. Oninoshiko
        Paris Hilton

        what did you shave?

        inquiring minds what to know!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: what did you shave?

          Probably his balls - but at least he's switch to Android from Apple ...

      2. Radelix

        Re: US version

        Slight correction, it went on sale a little after 8:30 AM PST and the ordering system has been up and more times than a prostitute at a frat party.

    10. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's sad to see mental health problems are on the increase.

    11. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Who let the sheep out

      Baa baa baa baa

      Who let the sheep out

      Baa baa baa baa...

  2. ContentsMayVary

    Nexus 10 32GB is out of stock too, after one hour. 16 GB is still available at the time of writing.

    I managed to snaffle a 32GB one - after accidentally ordering 2 due to horrible Play store timeouts and so on. I cancelled the extra one - perhaps I should have kept it for ebay and $$$ profit... ;)

    1. djack

      grr.

      I got to the store, put one in the basket and went through most of the purchasing process then the checkout bit ground to a halt.

      Went back to the store to try again and they're all gone :(

      Downvoted you out of spite :P

  3. Pie

    I got there early, and still couldn't buy one. Not in a huge rush, need it for xmas, but it would be nice to have it ticked off the list.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Followed by the huge rush to Google support trying to return it when they develop lots of problems due to piss poor build quality and testing.

    1. Alex Walsh

      LG kit is normally very well made.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        LG is usually better than Samsung.

    2. Shagbag

      LOL

      fruity fanbois troll.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Here Have A Free MS Surface

      Then you will know what shite means.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No problems with (e.g.) maps or making phone calls here.

  5. ajmatthews
    FAIL

    Nexus 4

    Well, as has been commented on elsewhere on the internet. The sale of the Nexus 4 didn't go that well. i started trying to buy one at 8:10 and the checkout process either crashsed with an ambiguous error and you had to start again, or Google wallet failed miserably. Stock would fluctuate between being in stock and coming soon. Gave up at 8:45 as had better things to do.

    Didn't manage to bag one - but will try again in a few weeks time.

  6. Richard Johnson 1

    I've accidentally ordered 3 - it was not clear at all that payments had gone through or been accepted etc.

    I have no idea whether all three will be honoured. If I were Google I would cancel two of my orders and just ship me one, but if three turn up I doubt I'll have a problem finding people to sell them to. (Not at a profit, I hasten to add, before get flamed!)

    Artificial limiting of supply is incredibly frustrating, but you can see why they do it. What's not really acceptable is giving people such a poor shopping experience with page crashes etc. Of all the companies in the world, I didn't think Google would be struggling to provide a web service!

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      WTF?

      > Not at a profit, I hasten to add, before get flamed!

      Anti-Capitalist Political Correctness is now at the level of shameful preemptive self-criticism?

      Despair.jpg

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Shirley you could go in and cancel your own orders before they ship?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      What proof of Artificial limiting of supply?

      Because the writer of this author said so?

      Rumour is, they told 30k units in the UK this morning in 30 minutes. 1000 a minute....

      And looking at the number of G+1's on the page, It's likely it's true.

      Not all companies play the same games as Apple and Nintendo....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What proof of Artificial limiting of supply?

        30k units - nice - but its still a piss in the ocean compared to Apple. Just sayin'

        1. Mark .

          Re: What proof of Artificial limiting of supply?

          Why compare to Apple? The best selling single model is the S3 - which would also be a better comparison due to also being android. Comparing sales of 1 android phone out of thousands, to all of Apple's sales, is hardly fair. Btw, Apple phone sales are a piss in the ocean compared to Samsung (or even Nokia), and especially compared to android.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What proof of Artificial limiting of supply?

        Same games as Apple? Honestly 30k units is just a joke of an allocation - one Apple store probably sold that many iPhones over the first weekend. At 30k they wanted it to appear sold out - don't be surprised if loads more appear in the next day or so.

        1. Shagbag

          30K is HUGE.

          30,000 units is an AMAZING figure. It's 'probably' more than 3 times the iPhone 5's first day sales (Apple only say what they want you to hear - including their sales figures).

          This is 'probably' the MOST AWESOME sales debut ever.

          It'll 'probably' set a GUINESS WORLD RECORD.

          They'll 'probably' have them on the ISS with the next Dragon delivery.

          The space crew will 'probably' use them to phone their wives (or boyfriends).

          Somewhere, someone will 'probably' drop it down the shitter.

          And they'll 'probably' fish it out with their bare hands.

        2. Peter H. Coffin

          Re: What proof of Artificial limiting of supply?

          30k phones at one Apple Store? Hardly. Pretend a box with a phone in is is 15cm x 10 x 5. stack phone retail boxes in cases, probably 30 per box. 12 cases per row on a pallet, probably no more than 5 rows high. That's 1500 phones per pallet, roughly. You can NOT convince me that a typical Apple Store has stock space to store 20 pallets. They MIGHT be able to handle 2. They wouldn't be able to run credit cards and offer overpriced service contracts fast enough to get 3000 phones out the door in 12 hours.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What proof of Artificial limiting of supply? @ Anonymous Coward 11:52 GMT

        What proof do you have that Apple & Nintendo play those games?

        Oh, you don't? Why am I not surprised...

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What proof of Artificial limiting of supply?

        30k supply constrained.

        Looking on XDA at how many people sell desperate for one, I'm pretty sure they could have easily sold double that in the UK alone...

        Considering it's a phone that not exactly in the public eye, it's impressive.

        1. Mark .

          Re: What proof of Artificial limiting of supply?

          Indeed, hardly any advertising or coverage, compared to months of hype and advertising campaign for apple. Also consider that most phones seem to be sold on contact, and this is the full price unlocked version.

  7. Leona A
    WTF?

    Geez what is it

    with everyone trying to buy a product on the day of release? I don't get it, just sit it out a couple of days, or better still, weeks and put your order in then, your phone is not broken now is it? no, well then, be patient and wait.

    1. Alex Walsh

      Re: Geez what is it

      Yes, that went well with the Raspberry Pi didn't it?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Geez what is it

      fancy getting down voted for pointing out what a bunch of sad, shallow, materialistic bastards are out there, whose lives are so empty that can't have the shiny thing.

    3. Jon Gibbins
      Unhappy

      Re: Geez what is it @Leona A

      "your phone is not broken now is it?"

      Actually it is. Hence the justified disappointment!

  8. twiddle

    It took three OS X browsers, one Windows 8 VM, lots of patience and a hung Google Wallet checkout page. I only knew I had succeeded (the checkout page never completed) was the email saying my order had gone through.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In the meantime.

    Nokia and Microsoft can't sell jackshit in the mobile arena... Warehouses around the globe are full of 'em, gathering dust.

    Consumers have spoken. Anyone wasting effort on Windows Phone will be going down the pan soon after Nokia...

    1. Fuzz

      Re: In the meantime.

      simple reason for this, Nokia aren't selling the Lumia 920 sim free for £279. If they were I have no doubt it sell at a similar rate.

    2. whiteknight
      Thumb Down

      Re: In the meantime.

      Oh dear, you really haven't a clue have you - enterprise, embedded, vertical markets - iOS doesn't work, Android too many holes - MS will make mincemeat in these IMPORTANT value add markets.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: In the meantime.

        iOS doesn't work - what you smoking - seen plenty of iPads being installed in vertical markets / corporate etc.

        MS are very late to this party - iOS already had the majority of the tablet market and probably even higher with business / corporates. What next - RIM are about to wipe all the other platforms out?

  10. chillibean

    Got mine

    Didn't think my payment worked because it kept crashing but checked my google wallet and it is there and being processed.

    Now the decision is if to keep my samsung s3 or the nexus 4, Mmmmmmm decisions!

    I was supprised that google weren't able to keep up with the web traffic.

  11. FartingHippo
    Trollface

    Losers

    I has Nexus 7. It is 3 better than a 4 lol so I win!

    My friend has a 10. He is not my friend now.

    1. dotdavid

      Re: Losers

      You need to get a 4, then you'll have 11.

      1. FartingHippo
        Trollface

        Re: Losers

        That is a good idea. You can be my new friend, and together we can laugh at people with only 10.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Samsung = gutted. They will wish they had not p'd Apple off soon when LG, Motorola, HTC, Asus and others all start making the 'next best' Android handset.

    1. EyeCU

      It's called competition

      It drives companies to out perform each other and so Samsung will just have to put more effort into their next handset if they want to remain market leader. Contrast that with the Apple way of doing things which is to try and remove the competition with lawyers as they cannot compete on technical merit.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: It's called competition

        Indeed, though as Samsung is supplying the presumably higher margin Nexus 10 they are unlikely to worry too much. Anyway Samsung has announced the Galaxy Premier as a slightly cut-down version of the SIII.

        @ Mr Cox - as desirable as "sold out" notices are for PR, most companies like to be able to keep on selling. Engineering shortages is against the law. The most likely thing is that Google still doesn't really know much about selling physical products: shipping, warehousing, etc. an may well have been genuinely caught out by the demand which does imply what many have been saying for a while: good Android devices are considered to be as good as I-Phones.

        1. Mark .

          Re: It's called competition

          "an may well have been genuinely caught out by the demand which does imply what many have been saying for a while: good Android devices are considered to be as good as I-Phones."

          Android has massively outsold iphone for years (as did Symbian throughout its lifetime), so indeed, it's long been true that most people consider them better.

          1. SuccessCase

            Re: It's called competition

            Actually Mark the evidence is against your assertion. Volume of sales does not equate to a vote for which is better and I don't even need to provide examples of an assertion so obvious as that. Not that reason will make any difference to the response this gets :)

            Two metrics that do provide a fair basis of comparison are satisfaction ratings and resale value. iPhones come our in front of any Android phones on both counts for sure - though for the first time for iPhone, since the Maps debacle, satisfaction ratings have fallen. However they still remain higher than for e.g. the S3 by some margin. This new Nexus may of course change that, but it is fair enough to point this out because your statement is referring to Android devices to date.

            Additionally there seems to be evidence Android phones - outside of a tech clique (which are only a tiny proportion of sales beyond first day) - are not purchased by people who are really that into using smartphones. Data usage by iPhones is still proportionately much higher per user than is the case for Android (despite some initial reports in 2010 to the contrary) and pundits for some time have had difficulty understanding why that should be, but one interpretation is difficult to avoid; Android phones, perceived as the cheaper alternative by the general market, are purchased by a higher proportion of people who don't want to be left behind but who aren't particularly into smartphones or don't wish to allocate budget to purchasing an iPhone. Consequently they are used for core phone functions and maybe for camera and music, more than for web browsing and a wide range of apps (which is also backed up by the still far lower revenues and profit margins for apps developers on Android).

            http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/21/real-time-research-ios-dominates-over-android-when-it-comes-to-usage-says-chitika/

            http://www.androidauthority.com/iphone-owners-use-more-data-129207/

            None of this changes how an individual might feel about an operating system, so it is is still perfectly consistent to say for those who are really "in the know" Android is better. However let's get some perspective as this forum is descending into a circle every bit as jerky as any formed by Apple fanboys.

  13. Robigus
    Thumb Up

    Keep a 10 year old handy

    I had a look and they weren't released. As I stood up and moved away from the kitchen computer, my youngest slipped into the seat and was watching the page and refreshing. He nearly exploded with excitement when it changed within seconds (and nearly went hypo but that's another story). Managed to bag a 16GB as a surprise for wifey - his excitement blew the surprise out of the water though.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Keep a 10 year old handy

      Exploded with excitement - think you need to let him out more.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Keep a 10 year old handy

        Let him out more? He's a kid not a dog.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Keep a 10 year old handy

          Bit sad a kid 'nearly going hypo' due to excitement over a phone (that's not even for him) becoming available - clearly has low expectations and it's not even an iPhone <lol>

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Keep a 10 year old handy

      Poor kid if that's all he's got to be excited about maybe get him a tangerine and a lump of coal for xmas.

    3. David Neil
      Trollface

      Re: Keep a 10 year old handy

      Should have been at School imho

    4. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quanitty

    Surely would be nice to know the acutal volumes offered/sold.

    They're now imitating Apple launches. Makes good headlines. Surely they created hype around the price points and then never followed up with enough stock. Dunno what they are playing at.

    Wankers.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: Quanitty

      You do realize that it will be BACK in stock at the current prices right? It wasn't just a one-off sale...

  15. Andrew Jones 2
    FAIL

    I'm far too cynical to believe that

    a) they had massive stock which has all sold out and

    b) their servers were having trouble keeping up.

    Quite how any company famed for it's server infrastructure and ability to cope with a trillion web requests every 0.001 seconds (these aren't official figures) can fail to keep a simple shop running is beyond me. Quite how the stock level can manage to vary between "in stock" and "coming soon" within seconds is beyond me.

    The only logical reason I can come up with for a company not accepting pre-orders is so they have the ability to peddle the Apple line "we underestimated the demand for our new product" - The sheer fact every tech blog for the last 2 months has been running at least one article on the Nexus4 pretty much every day - blows the "we didn't expect this kind of demand" theory out of the water.

    Sorry - the whole thing smacks of Apple tactics (which I'm surprised haven't been patented)

    And yes - I am bitter - I spent 25 minutes trying to get one - I had one in my cart about 10 times - but I just couldn't progress to the paying for it stage "oops an error occurred" - and then an empty shopping cart (which wasn't really empty - as soon as you tried to add the Nexus4 back to it - you discovered - Oh now there are 2 in there....)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Apple tactics - the difference is one of scale - Apple sell 3m+ in a weekend and god knows how many in the first hour or two - Google let the UK have 30k (apparently) - great. Will be telling what the actual sales figures for the first 3 months.

      1. Mark .

        You're right that the difference is one of scale. Android is now well over 1 million a day, all year round, now 5 times that of iphone. Samsung android phones alone outsell them two to one. And in total sales, both Samsung and Nokia outsell Apple. That's what the scale is. I entirely and that "sold out" sales mean little, as far as the real total sales are concerned.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The only logical reason I can come up with

      Is that the Google Play devices store isn't hosted on the same servers as www.Google.com, and it was never a page access problem, it was the billing system that was choked.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Farcical

    Decided to sell my iPhone 4S to get the Nexus 4 and I waited and waited and waited. Couldn't get any further than adding the phone to the basket in Google Chrome but then it kept producing an error

    Worked like a charm in Internet Explorer and launched the google wallet screen, which kept producing an error or loading a screen with no billing details or information at all.

    After several attempts it then told me it was out of stock. I used a link I'd copied and it was back in my basket. Managed to proceed to the checkout only to be told at the final stage after submission there was another error. Checked my bank account and they've taken the money for two phones instead of one.

    I believe I have successfully managed to cancel one of the orders and that the other one is being dispatched, but I'll be buggered if I know how I ended up with 2 separate purchases when I only got as far as the billing information screen once.

    Can't wait to get my hands on it though great spec'd phone and it's got pure Android which is leaps and bounds ahead of iOS now. Too many great features that iOS lacks without resorting to a jailbreak to resist switching

  17. Richard 116
    Megaphone

    Don't panic!

    You can get one from O2 for.... £399.99 !!

  18. dansus

    I wanted the 3G N7, which luckily is still for sale, think i will take my time just to be smug.

    1. Displacement Activity

      @dansus

      Hope you got a move on - sold out by 10.20AM.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How much better...

    ...is this at tracking your personal movements, purchases, texts etc than the previous one?

    1. thesykes

      Re: How much better...

      It's good, but, not as good as an iPhone.

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. Frumious Bandersnatch

        Re: How much better...

        It's good, but, not as good as an iPhone.

        I'm reminded of that ad that Apple ran not so long ago that bigged up Siri in particular. One female user asked the phone whether her brother had arrived yet at a stadium or something, and was told that [insert Brother's name] was here. And you talk about how Android phones spy on you?

        1. Synonymous Howard

          Re: How much better...

          Ah, that's 'find my friends' and it's an opt-in feature.

          http://sirisays.org/find-my-friends-with-siru/

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: How much better...

            Latitude? Had that feature on my Nokia N95

  20. Esskay
    Happy

    Managed to snag a 16GB one here in Oz

    But a lot of unhappy people missed out.

    As far as I can tell, they went on sale at 11:20am local (sydney) time, I ordered at 12:30pm and the 16GB models were gone before 1pm. 8GB models lasted a bit longer, but not by much.

    It's not the perfect phone, but the price makes it an absolute steal (plus vanilla android's quick updates means an always up-to-date phone).

    From what I've heard worldwide stocks were *very* limited (which would explain the lack of preorders), possibly as a sweetener for their partners (who obviously make competing phones) also the fact that the phone must be being sold at something approaching a loss means that they're probably not sacrificing production of profitable models in order to get the Nexus out the door. Ultimately Google aren't a hardware company, hitting record sales numbers on day 1 isn't exactly something they need to keep their share price up, so they're probably happy to keep them trickling out at a constant rate and getting them out there when they do. Historically Nexus phones aren't volume sellers the way the SGS3 is, the popularity in the wake of SGS3, iPhone5, Optimus G, Lumia 920 probably comes as something of a shock to even Google.

  21. chistery
    Go

    Got mine, order went through eventually. Make sure your Wallet account is up to date with delivery addresses and credit cards.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    No ethernet port, no sale.

    1. dotslash
      Joke

      obligatory: "1974 called and says hello" joke

    2. hplasm
      Happy

      No MacBook

      For you then?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I can wait

    I do like the vanilla Jelly Bean experience from my Nexus 7 so the 4 is certainly on the cards for me (and may well displace the S3 as my main phone). There's no rush though. I can wait.

  24. Waspy
    Thumb Down

    Oh and what's this?

    A load of predictable opportunists selling Nexus 4s on eBay from this morning.

    I'm all for capitalism and that, but I witnessed the same thing when I was trying to get a firesale TouchPad last year - after a whole night of trying and failing to buy even one TP online, I went into my local PC World and was flanked by two others, a lady who didn't even know what the fuck a TouchPad was (her mate had told her 'it's a bit like an iPad but really cheap') and some other bonehead and his mate who was trying to explain to the lady 'yeah, it's like an iPad innit but not as good. But it's cheap!'. Meanwhile there was me, Palm Pre owner since launch merely seeing the opportunity to own a tablet that I'd wanted (but couldn't afford) since its release. Never got one in the end.

    The point of my rambling is that it must be quite annoying for people who genuinely want a Nexus 4 for their own personal use versus people trying to make a quick buck, who in my eye are no better than ticket touts.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh and what's this?

      If you don't like it go to North Korea

      1. Waspy

        Re: Oh and what's this?

        They're a laugh over there, is that where you got your amazing sense of humour from?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh and what's this?

      > A load of predictable opportunists selling Nexus 4s on eBay from this morning.

      It's probably Google since they don't appear to be able to run a website that can cope with the demand.

    3. David Neil

      Re: Oh and what's this?

      Captialism, it's great. If someone is prepared to give me their money just now rather than hang on a couple of weeks, why not take the money?

      Same with the Touchpad, I had no interest at the apple-esque prices initially charged, but when Argos accepted reservations in the firesale I got myself one and eventually slapped Android on it.

  25. Jon Gibbins
    Flame

    30 minutes? More like 13!

    I received the email and in no less than 13 minutes I was on the site ready to order and already the N4 was 'coming soon' again ....

    Couldn't help but notice that O2 are profiteering on it too. £400? C'mon Google. Get a grip and get some more stock before I buy an HTC or Sammy or something ...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      Re: 30 minutes? More like 13!

      "Get a grip and get some more stock before I buy an HTC or Sammy or something ..."

      Go for it.

      We can all laugh at you when we have Android 5.0 and you are sat there crying about how long Samsung/HTC/Sony/Whoever is taking.....

  26. Graham Lee
    Facepalm

    "Company claims to have sold an unspecified number of things"

    > There's clearly a pattern emerging from tech launches these days: announce the launch date and, on the day, sit back and await the 'sold out immediately' headlines.

    On the one hand, you could put your money where your principles are and refuse to publish such non-news. On the other hand, if forum posts are a useful proxy for page views, you made quite a few ad dollars yourselves out of this "story".

    I imagine companies don't tell you what the numbers are because they're uninspiringly low numbers. "We sold all of the 3000 UK Nexus 4s (which excludes the ones we'd already sold to carriers)" is less compelling.

  27. Silverburn
    Facepalm

    30,000 sold in the first hour?

    By the looks of the posts above, it's due to people ordering far too many by mistake - either due to flaky web hosts or plain ol' PEBCAK...

  28. Luke McCarthy
    FAIL

    Since it might take a while for enough stock to be available

    I might wait until the 21st to see what Jolla announce. Kind of getting fed up with Android.

  29. Carl Fletcher

    It's embarrassing!

    It's damn embarrassing that a company like Google can continuously fail to anticipate demand and launch products to immediate sellout. We've had 3 other Nexus phones already, they know how many are going to be needed.

    The website didn't work either, slow and errored, and several people i know ordered several accidentally because they didn't get any confirmation that the order succeeded. This is *Google*! They can't build a website that scales??

    I did bag one though.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's embarrassing!

      Production constrained.

    2. Mark .

      Re: It's embarrassing!

      "We've had 3 other Nexus phones already, they know how many are going to be needed."

      The previous Nexus phones didn't sell that hugely - they were important, as flagships, but the massive Android sales tended to come from other phones (with the biggest sales most recently being the S2 and S3).

      On top of that, most phone sales AFAICT come through contracts, not from people buying the phone outright.

      So it's quite possibly they did genuinely fail to anticipate demand, because it is so much stronger than anything they've had before.

  30. the-it-slayer
    Trollface

    Well done Google...

    That's a 1000 units sold...

  31. Alain Moran

    According to google

    All of the Nexuses are sold out ... the 7's and the 10's too ... despite them still being apparently on sale.

  32. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Cheers google

      I smell BS for the simple fact you said you spoke to a human at Google.... When I tried calling their number all I got was a fax machine

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Cheers google

        That was a Google 'human'.

  33. Al Taylor
    Happy

    After a few false starts and about 20 minutes

    I managed to order an 8GB handset at 08.30 this morning. Only a few glitches between between choosing device and successfully exiting checkout. With luck it will arrive in the not too distant future as it's the Reg's review unit!

  34. Richy Freeway

    Thought I'd failed at ordering completely.

    Spent most of the morning trying to get one, the site failed and failed and failed and then the stock was gone and I was fuming.

    20 minutes later I get 2 emails telling me that I've ordered the phone. 2 separate orders had gone through.

    Didn't really think to buy both and stick one on ebay, so the 2nd one got cancelled.

  35. mattlad
    Unhappy

    What really pee'd me off was that I received e-mails / g-mails at 8.39 and 8.40 respectively saying that the Nexus 4 was ready to purchase when it was already sold out.........

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Taxation of Multinational Corporations

    Love the new OS but can't help feeling a bit disappointed now from what I learnt yesterday of google uk business structure at the UK Parliament Select Committee Hearing..

    Watch the following video from the 17:00 (actual clock time) how google stashes its European profits in Bermuda :)

    http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/Player.aspx?meetingId=11764

    Can someone enlighten how they are able to take it out of Bermuda again?

  37. peejay1977

    Have to say this was quite farcical, I expected the website to be slow, even crash, but I did not expect it to let me get all the way to paying for it then crash and tell me my basket was empty.

    However, an hour later and I find 2 emails stating I have bought 2 of them! All is not lost, a friend wants the spare one.

    Not a great show Google!

    Paul.

  38. Bob Vistakin
    Joke

    Drat.

    Well, nothing else for it. I'll just have to get one of those bright yellow WP8 models then.

  39. El Presidente
    Thumb Up

    Managed To Get Three!

    Promptly sold all three.

    Will buy another phone for keeps, with the profit, when the phone is back in stock.

    1. Fink-Nottle
      Unhappy

      Re: Managed To Get Three!

      Grrr ... I hope they get delivered by Yodel.

    2. kparsons84

      Re: Managed To Get Three!

      haha you really think people believe that you did this for something thats hardly rocking horse shit?! i call smelly bullshit on this one.

      you sad fuck!

  40. James Hughes 1

    When I think of the abuse

    That I had to deal with when fielding the Raspberry Pi complainers after their launch (and even now!), it makes my heart glad to see Google, with all their muscle and cash, had exactly the same problems. And if it really was only 30k units ( I don't believe that btw), the Raspberry Pi's >100k looks, well, quite something.

    Raspberry Pi on course to sell 900k by end of year, 1 million (ish) in first year of sale. Just thought I'd mention it.

    1. Displacement Activity

      Re: When I think of the abuse

      Just a minute. I am the real James Hughes.

  41. Higgsy

    I got mine at 08:20 this morning. I feel for the people who haven't been able to get one first time round. I've been there in the past and I as pissed off.

  42. AlexS
    Meh

    Bagged a Nexus 10 at 10am, yes 10am. Nexus 4 I had one in the cart and had my card declined, phoned up card company and sorted it. By then it was too late. Nexus 4 were being sold until 9.30am, but you had to press refresh about 100 times and then it was near impossible to bag (somebody was always there first).

    Those who got confused about whether they made an order to not need to log in here to check:

    http://www.google.co.uk/wallet/

  43. Zed Zee
    FAIL

    The conspiracy to dictate device storage continues.

    It's amazing how the processor is dropped into this article with a complete vacuum, when it comes to it's specification; that being quad core at 1.5GHz.

    What's of more concern and smacks of a conspiracy by all the Android phone vendors, is that they've now started dropping the feature of an SD Card slot from their phones!

    Sony is at it with the NXT models, Google is now doing it on Nexus 7 and this unimpressive phone and I think hTC has started down this disappointing behaviour as well, with the Desire X.

    I don't want my storage capacity dictated to me (as Apple fanboys have to endure) - I want to decide how much capacity I want and I certainly don't want to blow my monthly data allowance, on streaming all my content, just because my phone hasn't got a SD Card slot.

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Worse than fanboi's .

  45. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looked this morning, and...

    Page now just says Out Of Stock and no longer taking Notification email addresses.

  46. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    huawei blaze 50 quid from tesco

    runs angry birds, every other droid app I've wanted. Fits in a pocket. Had to pay a man a tenner to unlock it tho!

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    Trading Standards Fail

    Quite apart from the fact that, as has already been commented, one of the world's biggest net/data businesses can't keep its trading/payments system running, this accidental multiple-order thing is a disgrace.

    Perhaps everyone here who has "accidentally" bought several does actually have the funds to settle their credit-card bill. Perhaps they are also set up as e-bay traders and can quickly off-load, and even profit from, extras. Perhaps not. How many people, today, who could just afford the phone, are now worried by an additional couple of hundred quid, or more, on their credit card balance?

    "Oh sorry, I accidentally sold you several. And took the money. Thanks: you're the umpteenth today."

    ...Wouldn't this get a high-street trader closed down?

  48. jowlymonster

    I'm still using my trust Galaxy Nexus - the Nexus 4 looks ok, but not significant enough for me to really want one. So luckily, I didn't have to get all pissy yesterday when it all went wrong. I know a couple of guys from work tried to buy one and failed miserably though.

    I might pick one up in a few months, but the G'Nex is the first phone I've had for 12 months and not got bored of yet!

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