Google Nexus 4 Availability; Device Still Sold Out in Many Retailers

The Google Nexus 4 smartphone is in short supply as retailers have sold out of the device around the world.

It's been pretty tough to buy a Nexus 4 from Google ever since the device's release in November 2012, though, with both versions selling out quickly on their launch date and then getting put on backorder when they were relisted in the Google Play Store later in November.

Google's Play Store has priced the Nexus 4 at $299 for the 8GB model and $349 for the more capacious 16GB flavor.

Google also partnered with T-Mobile whose supply has gone up and down in recent weeks.

T-Mobile restocked the phones this week after a massive demand, but as of today the retailer is out of stock. It is no wonder that the phones were quickly snatched by eager consumers as  T-Mobile's pricing for the 16GB Nexus 4 is set at $199.99 with a two-year contract and $50 mail-in rebate, while the full retail price for the N4 is set at $549.99. T-Mobile also notes that it's waiving the $35 activation fee on all devices purchased through Jan. 31.

Larry Page, Google's chief executive, addressed the supply shortage in a recent quarterly earnings call for the company.

"Clearly there is work to be done in managing our supply better," Page explained, "as well as building a great customer experience, and that is a priority for the teams," Page explained about the urgency to resolve the issue, according to ExpertReviews. "But considering all the excitement over the holidays for our devices, it is clear there is tremendous opportunity in delivering great value with amazing and simple user experience."

Google's Nexus 4 is one of the top smartphones with features that includes a 4.7-inch display, a quad-core 1.5 GHz processor running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, 16 GB internal memory, 2 GB of RAM, and up to 12-hours of talk time.