What do you mean by "properly" sell physical hardware? They are a services company, and their interest is in the overall Android ecosystem. If you ask me they are doing a decent job of toeing the line between shipping a good reference implementation and a big Microsoftian middle finger to the OEMs that butter their bread.

I didn't make it sound like anything, beyond that -- relative to a Nexus device -- there is enormous pent up demand for this. The hype has been building for weeks, and the anticipated release has been very, very closely watched. Everyone knew this would be a hugely front-loaded purchase.

If Google does what they traditionally do they will be going through batches, with small delays between. With each batch the estimated delivery time will increase -- managers will meet and get agreements by vendors -- and supplies will reappear.