When Google announced that their online phone store was going to the wayside, everyone’s immediate thought wasn’t about the store itself, but more about the device it was selling: the Nexus One. We had always heard Google say that they would be selling the device outside of their store, and when the store closed its doors they again said that carriers around the world would be selling the stock Android device. While that panned out, it didn’t show up in as many places as people would like (like at T-Mobile USA). But, if you’re still interested in buying it, you can, right from Google.

That is, if you’re a developer. You’ll have to pony up the $25 fee to register as a developer, and then you’ll have to drop $529 to get the device sent to you. But, for that 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen, 1GHz processor, and completely “vanilla” Android experience, that’s a small price to pay, isn’t it? Plus, it’s not like you have any real options, right? We’re just excited to see that it still lives on. Comment from Google below.

“We’ve always offered unlocked phones for direct sale to registered Android Developers. As of today, the Developer Phone is the Nexus One, at a price of $529. To see the details or order a phone, you need to sign in to your Android developer account and click on the “Development Phones” link.

“The Nexus One combines an up-to-the-minute platform (Android 2.2), modern hardware, and the pure Google Experience software suite. It’s a good choice both for people who want to build Android applications using either the SDK or the NDK, and those who want to experiment with modified versions of the Android platform. Note that the Nexus One still ships with Android 2.1 but will download 2.2 soon after you turn it on; make sure you’re near a fast network.

As well as being an outstanding developer platform, it’s a really nice everyday phone; we’re really happy to have connected the right dots to make this happen.”

[via Android Developer Blog]