Delays are plaguing Google’s Nexus 7 tablet with 16GB of storage as some stores have stopped taking orders or delayed shipments of the product.
The tablet has been unavailable on Google’s website since the middle of this week after running out of stock, and was still not available for order on the Google Play store as of Friday. Availability of the tablet is becoming even tougher as retailers like Staples and Office Depot have stopped taking online orders, while GameStop and Adorama have delayed the shipping dates for the tablet to the middle or end of August.
The 16GB Nexus 7 tablet will come back “soon” on Google’s Play store, said Gina Weakley Johnson, a Google spokeswoman, in an e-mail on Friday.
“We haven’t shared a timeline,” she said. An 8GB version of the Nexus 7 tablet is still available for $199 in the Google Play store.
The 16GB tablet, which is priced at US$249, started shipping on July 13, but issues mounted almost immediately with retailers like Staples, GameStop and Adorama struggling to meet shipping commitments after receiving limited stocks of tablets.
Staples has now stopped taking orders for the 16GB tablet, putting it on “special order” and asking buyers to check in-store for availability. Staples earlier delayed shipments by a few days after the tablet started shipping, but was still taking orders. Staples has also put the 8GB Nexus 7 on special order.
GameStop, which is one of the retail stores Google partnered with for Nexus 7, is taking orders for the 16GB Nexus 7, but is promising shipping dates after three or four weeks. Earlier this month the company stopped taking orders for the 16GB Nexus 7 tablet.
The 16GB Nexus 7 is also out of stock on Office Depot’s website, and the retailer is not taking orders, asking buyers to “check back soon.”