In its Thursday email to customers, Google revealed that the shipments of its eagerly-awaited new tablet – the much-raved-about ‘Nexus 7’ – have begun for customers who had placed pre-orders for the device this week.

The Google disclosure – which comes in the midst of reports that the demand for Nexus 7 is overwhelming – specified that while some versions of the company’s 7-inch tablet are in the mail, the others versions will be shipping to customers by Thursday evening.

About the current shipping status of the Google Nexus 7 to customers, the Google online Help Center has revealed that the 8 GB versions of the tablet have already been shipped in the US; and all 16 GB versions which had been ordered before July 11 will likely be shipped by the end of the day on Thursday.

About the overseas shipping of the Nexus 7, Google said that the shipping of the orders in the UK and Australia will begin later this month.

Meanwhile, a CNET report earlier this week had revealed that, thanks to the incredible demand, most of the bigwig retail chains – including GameStop, Staples, Sam's Club and Office Depot - have already sold out of all of the Nexus 7 stock that they had ordered.

In addition, a quick check on a number of websites on Thursday also showed that the Nexus 7 is ‘out of stock’ even at Fry's and the Best Buy stores.