It has been quite a day for Android fans. This morning began with a bang with the release of the Android 5.0 SDK and System Images for the Nexus 5 and 7. In case you haven’t heard by now (don’t know how) this meant owners of the Nexus 5 and 7 could install the latest (and basically) full preview of Android Lollipop. On top of that we saw a wealth of Nexus devices go on sale officially through the Play Store including the Nexus 6, Nexus 9 and the Nexus Player. To be clear although these are officially on sale they are all still only in the pre-order stage. So you can buy them but they won’t be shipping yet.
The last of the products mentioned was the Nexus Player and for those new to this the Nexus Player is android for your living room or more especially android for your TV. The device runs on Android TV which is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop and offers direct access to all sort of entertainment. Think Play, on Lollipop and directly on your TV without the need for any casting or streaming. A few hours ago an interesting development occurred when we reported that the device had already been marked as ‘out of inventory‘ on the listing page. Now at the time no one was that surprised at the news. Like all the Nexus range, the public are kinda expecting them to sell out even when bearing in mind they are only at the pre-order stage. It was slightly surprising that the Nexus Player was the first to sell out but as mentioned not greatly surprising. This is a new technology and as such a hot product.
Well since then an even more interesting development has occurred. It now seems that the device was not out of stock because it had sold out but actually because it has not been approved by the FCC. The new information is not widely publicised by Google and instead appears as a small sentence pasted at the very bottom of the Nexus Player Play listing. It is also not clear as to why the device was originally for sale this morning when it had not passed the FCC unless Google had been expecting the approval to come during today and hedged their bets regardless. Either way two things are sure. The device is not available to order currently and there is no obvious time-frame as to when it will be. For those wanted to know more I would suggest getting in contact with Google although it seems you are probably better off contacted the FCC regarding shipping dates.