Google cans sales of Nexus One phone

No more direct sales of search giant's first mobile phone.

Google's Nexus One handset, which has been on sale in Australia since July 1 through Vodafone, will no longer be sold by Google - as it clears out its final shipment.   

"This week we received our last shipment of Nexus One phones. Once we sell these devices, the Nexus One will no longer be available online from Google," the company said on its Nexus One blog last Friday.

The phone has been on sale in Australia through Vodafone Australia since July 1, however supplies were limited with the  telco warning that it had a "modest allocation" of the devices.

The biggest impact of Google's final shipment will be for US consumers, for whom Google had promised to revolutionise the smartphone market by selling direct rather than relying on the likes of Verizon and Sprint.

Google has promised that Nexus One would continue to be sold by Vodafone in Europe, KT in South Korea and some other markets.

Initial sales of the Android-based Google phone were disappointing, with analytics group Flurry claiming that Google managed to sell just 80,000 units in its first month - well short of the 600,000 Apple did in the iPhone's first month.

The company last month flagged its decision to shutter direct online sales of the phone as it changed its website to become a gallery of Android-based phones.