8GB Nexus 4 sold out in UK, 16GB version still in stock — ships inside 5 to 6 weeks!

Nexus 4 handsets purchased in the UK via Google’s Play store won't ship for around five to six weeks, potentially ruining Christmas for many consumers looking to get the handset as a gift for a loved one. 

Google confirmed that its new Nexus 4 handset would go back on sale in the UK earlier this week. Things kicked off at 5pm yesterday and this morning the 16GB handset is still listed as being in stock. 

8GB variants of the handset, which Google is selling for £239, have already sold out, however, according to Google’s Play store. 

The Nexus 4, as you all now know, features a quad-core Qualcomm S4 Pro processor, one of the best chips on the market, a brilliant 4.7-inch WXGA IPS display, an 8-megapixel camera, and 2GB of RAM. 

For £239, that’s an absolute steal. So much so that networks and retailers cannot afford to match Google’s rock bottom pricing, with costs ranging from £399 SIM-free to free on 24-month contracts. 

'What you are basically seeing is Google subsidizing the hardware through advertising and other services without locking customers into a real contract,’ said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi. 

She added: ‘this is really interesting as a business model and something that we have seen already with the Kindle Fire. The fact here is that the difference is quite considerable so as a user why would I get it on contract from a network?’

And it's networks that will be hurt most by Google’s aggressive pricing, although the affect on its hardware partners – HTC, Samsung, and Motorola – cannot be overlooked. 

‘The implications of this are much more important for the carriers than not for LG who I am assuming is getting the full price or close to it from Google. For now though the impact is mitigated by the availability of Google Play but this will keep on growing,’ added Milanesi.

But, hey, at least it’s still in stock for the time being, right?