Free ESG report : Seamless data management with Avere FXT

An email from Amazon telling customers that they wouldn't be getting their Chromecast dongle until nearly November – at the earliest – was a mistake, the company has said. In fact, shipping will begin shortly.

Amazon, along with big-box retailers like Best Buy, sold out of Google's $35 gizmo within days of the streaming stick being made available. Amazon's latest batch of deliveries is due to go out in the next day or so, but some buyers have been sent an email telling them it would be October 30 before they got their Chromecasts in the mail.

The email was "an incorrect estimated order delivery of late October," an Amazon spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. "We are actively fulfilling orders and all customers who placed orders prior to August 7 should receive their orders in the coming weeks."

Chromecast was launched at the same time as Google's new Nexus 7 tablet, but interest in the Chocolate Factory's new fondleslab has been dwarfed by the response to the economically designed streaming stick. While opinion is divided on its merits or otherwise, the $35 price point is proving very popular.

Google's Play store is promising to deliver the device within two to three weeks, which suggests the company is taking the lion's share of production output at the moment. Google declined to comment to El Reg on the matter.

It is Google's device after all, so it's logical that the company makes sure its own supply lines are the best. But having people publicly clamoring for the device can't hurt, and there are some in Mountain View who are enjoying having a product that's as popular as something from their Cupertinian rivals.

Meanwhile, if you have more money than sense really can't wait for your Chromecast, there's eBay, where prices for resold dongles vary from $60 to $100. Then again, many of these offers have uncertain delivery dates and/or vendors, so caveat emptor. ®

5 ways to prepare your advertising infrastructure for disaster