Old Nexus 7 Hard to Find as New Models Hit Retail

While the old Nexus 7 from 2012 was readily available for purchase last week, the tablet has quickly become difficult to find at retailers have moved to replace it with the newer version of the Nexus 7 that arrived on shelves last week.

Originally, Google announced that the new Nexus 7 would be hitting shelves on July 30th, or, just a few days after its announcement which took place during the middle of last week. However, the device has quickly gone from announcement to shelves as retailers and even Google have started selling the new tablet ahead of schedule.

This is great news for those looking to buy the new tablet, however, those who may not be interested in the new Nexus 7 or its price tag, are seeing their options shrink a bit.

Read: New Nexus 7 Stock Dwindles Quickly.

Unlike Apple, which tends to keep its older devices on sale in some capacity after the arrival of a new product, Google quickly moved to replace the older Nexus 7 which had been sold over the course of the past year. The device completely vanished from the Google Play Store last week, no longer an option for those that don’t need the big times specs and $230 starting price tag of the new Nexus 7.

It appears that retailers are following suit as stock of the old Nexus appears to be drying up by the same. At GameStop, the device is no longer available online like it once was. At Staples, the device has vanished online, and its hidden listing shows that the device is only available in stores, at least while supplies last. Best Buy’s website no longer lists the device for sale either.

OfficeMax is still selling the older Nexus 7 though it’s only selling the $250 32GB model. Walmart is also selling the 32GB model though it has dropped the price down to $199. No telling how long stock of either of these might last but given how quickly other retailers have replaced it, they will likely sell out soon.

What this means is that those uninterested in the new tablet will likely have a rough go finding one and may have to depend on deal-oriented sites like Woot or SlickDeals in order to nab one when available.

The Nexus 7 may be old, but it’s still a very capable tablet, especially now that it has been upgraded with Android 4.3, an update that may have taken care of some of its issues.

Consumers though shouldn’t expect it to be readily available from here on out.