No major Australian carriers sell the Galaxy Nexus any more

Update: I haven’t checked inside every store, but the one’s that I’ve been to (Melbourne CBD) have been out of stock or close to it. 

Almost two months ago to the date Telstra stopped selling the Galaxy Nexus. There was a huge amount of public backlash, which Telstra responded to on our Google+ page just one day afterwards.

Now that two months had passed I decided to check out what Australia’s other carriers had been doing. I checked Vodafone, Optus, Telechoice, Virgin Mobile, Crazy John’s, Dodo, Boost, Red Bull Mobile and others.
To my astonishment no Australian carriers are selling the Galaxy Nexus anymore, meaning it is almost impossible to have the Nexus on a plan. This is quite strange. Even Red Bull Mobile, who started selling the Galaxy Nexus only 62 days ago, has had it stripped from the store. We all know that it can be incredibly difficult (and pricey) for carriers to get devices in-store, train employees, enter into the catalogue, etc. The costs are endless. For a carrier to introduce a phone and have it taken away within two months is something pretty serious.

The only mainstream Australian retailer to officially be selling the Galaxy Nexus is Dick Smith for just a smidgen under $500. Or, of course, there are many grey import retailers like Kogan out there who are selling it for under $360.

Yes, the GNex is a phone that first made its appearance last year in December, but it is still the flagship Nexus phone – and it will be for at least the next few months.

So, what’s the deal?

Is it as simple as a lack of demand for the Galaxy Nexus? Does the common consumer have no desire for a Nexus device? Or, is it that Google is fed up with carriers essentially ‘ruining’ the Nexus experience and delaying updates for such long periods of time?

Seeing as though Google has been selling the Nexus 7 in the Devices section of the Google Play store since mid-July, it would seem reasonable that the next Nexus will be sold there too. Is Google working on removing itself from the carrier scene in Australia? Will carriers be selling the next Nexus device on plan? The possibilities of how and why this has happened are endless and there reason is far from known. I would have to say that Google is behind this somehow and is trying to bring back the Nexus name to its past belief – a device that will receive updates first out of the gate, just like Google intended.

Why do you think the Galaxy Nexus has disappeared from all major carriers in Australia?