Google has admitted for the first time that supply chain issues with the Nexus 6 meant it simply could not meet such strong demand for the device when it made its debut back in November.

CFO Patrick Pichette said that the handset had been “very well received,” but it’s not that Google’s forecast wasn’t ready for that.

In fact, it’s not totally clear how many sales Google expected — the company didn’t reveal that or how many handsets had been sold so far — but either way, supply issues meant it could not produce as many handsets as it would have liked at the time.

“While the Nexus 7 [sic] was very well received as a new phone, we had real issues and unable to secure sufficient inventory to meet the demand that we had forecasted,” Pichette said during Google’s earnings call on Thursday.

This isn’t the first time Google has had this issue with a Nexus device, so it seems switching manufacturer from LG to Motorola did little to solve that problem. But it’s not necessarily a bad problem to have.

Sure, Google would have wanted to produce more and therefore sell more units faster, but at least those it was producing were flying off the shelves. Any company would take that over Amazon’s Fire Phone situation, which has left tens of thousands of handsets set in a warehouse.

• ViaDroid-Life