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Google backtracks on Nexus online sales

Google will halt online sales of its Nexus One smart phone through its website, after admitting that the sales medium had failed to live up to its revolutionary potential.

Speaking at the US launch of the phone in February, Google's head of mobile, Andy Rubin, said the Nexus would be the first of many Google phones but "the real innovation here is the distribution of cellphones on a web store".

Just four months later, however, they have acknowledged that people still want to hold a phone in their hands before buying and the internet sales experience has not yet eliminated that.

Rubin admitted this week that while many aspects of the phone had created high demand – the software platform Android proving particularly popular – "the web store has not".

The company will now phase out web sales and globally adopt the method they have been using in Europe, which is to sell the handset through the shops of its network partner, Vodafone, making it free on some long-term contracts.

"Once we have increased the availability of Nexus One devices in stores, we'll stop selling handsets via the web store," said Rubin.

"We will instead use it as an online store window to showcase a variety of Android phones available globally."