Once again, Google (News - Alert) finds itself the victim of its own success. Last week, it was reported that Google's Nexus 7 tablet sold out almost immediately after its release at a number of retail locations, including GameStop, Sam's Club and Staples (News - Alert). Now, this week, the company faces a similar dilemma.
The situation is that Google itself has completely run out of stock of the 16GB version of its tablet, which was co-developed with hardware manufacturer Asus. Customers looking to buy a Nexus 7 from Google's online store in the U.S. and the U.K. today will be greeted with only a "coming soon" message.
Google apparently acknowledged that it had "seriously underestimated" demand for the higher-capacity device — the tablet also ships with 8GB of storage. The company figured that customers would be more interested in saving money on the 8GB version of the Nexus, taking advantage of the provided cloud storage options for more space. It seems as though customers aren't willing to overlook the value of on-device storage just yet.
The 16GB Nexus 7 also continues to be sold out at a number of retail locations, including Sam's Club, Kmart and GameStop.
The Nexus 7 may continue to see high demand for a while, since there is currently no deal that can quite compare to it in the tablet space as of now. While other tablets sell at the same $199-$250 price point — the Amazon Kindle Fire, for example — none of those tablets can match the Nexus 7's specs: a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 processor, a high-quality 7" HD IPS display and, of course, the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean.
The device also sports excellent value in terms of durability, according to a recent YouTube (News - Alert) video (shown above), which shows the Nexus 7 outperforming the iPad in a number of durability and water resistance tests.