Nexus One Back On Sale At Google Developer Store

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The Nexus One may not have been one for the consumer world, but it’s been insanely popular as the official Android developer phone. As you may remember, the phone sold out in the Android developer store as “ADP3″ (Android Developer Phone 3), but now it’s back and ready for more developer orders.

We labeled the whole Nexus One saga a “grand experiment” by Google. It was a unique test to see if a manufacturer (well, Google didn’t really manufacture the Nexus One, but I digress) could sell phones direct to customers unlocked. It was the best Android phone at the time and it was shipping with the stock Android UI as more and more manufacturers were going with their own UIs.

What made the Nexus One sales experiment interesting was that it was very European-like. In Europe, many customers are comfortable with taking their unlocked phones from carrier to carrier and swapping out SIM cards as they please. In America, carriers sell phones as much as they do service plans – and most US customers probably don’t know what a SIM card is (or, in the case of CDMA-powered Verizon and Sprint, their MEID number).

But, by some market analyst reports, the Nexus One didn’t sell well and with equally powerful Android phones coming on every carrier, Google stopped selling the phone direct to consumers. It resurfaced in the Google Developer Store (where only registered Android developers can purchase it) and oddly enough, sold out very quickly. Google blew threw their initial stock of the device and had to rush to order more from HTC.

Well, now it’s back in stock. What’s interesting about this is that the Nexus One, ADP3 rather, isn’t any cheaper in the Developer Store than it was when it was being sold to the public. It’s still being sold for the $500+ price.

Do you think the Nexus One is more ‘desirable’ (pun intended, the HTC Desire is the unbranded Nexus One) now since it’s not for general sale to the public? Tell us what you think in the comments.