Asus: We are NOT killing off Transformer Prime
It's just that availability has been pants
Asus has not placed the Eee Pad Transformer Prime on the scrap-heap just yet, but availability has been so poor that channel folk can be forgiven for thinking it had been killed off, the vendor has admitted.
Typically, non-iPad vendors have struggled to create the same level of hype around their tablets that Apple has mastered in recent years, and if anything have only managed to push massive volumes out of the door by hacking prices.
"We have no plans to kill it," said a PR exec at Asus, "but due to fact that it is selling out so quickly, it looks as though we are stopping [manufacturing] it."
He said the vendor was taking delivery of stocks on a weekly basis and confirmed that major resellers were hogging the stock, claiming the amount of kit Asus could provide was "nothing close to actual demand".
"We can't produce them quickly enough. Once again we've underestimated demand ... and had to bring Q1 shipments forward into Q4," said the Asus spokesman.
The Android-based tablet has come in for its fair share of criticism – and some praise – with UK mobile retailer Clove withdrawing the product from its shelves due to customer complaints.
According to Q4 sales-in figures for the UK, Asus shipped just 9,000 fondleslabs into channel but it did not breakdown the numbers into the specific models on the market – namely the Eee Pad Transformer TF 101 and Eee Pad Transformer Prime TF201.
The Transformer 300 and 7000 have not yet been released to UK consumers. ®
COMMENTS
Got to love it
My prime is quite simply the best tablet I have used / seen. The games run stonkingly well on it and after the ICS update it is even better than ever. I have had it reboot twice since I have had it (2 months) and this was due to an app falling over. I Love the fact you can plug in xbox / ps3 (over BT or USB) controllers and use them (obviously if the game allows). Its a solid all round performer.
Did I say I loved it? :)
"Asus has under produced initial Transformers to create an artificial shortage and thus get lots of free advertising in from various press outlets. It also makes people think that everyone want one so they must be good, which leads the clueless drones into demanding something that they don't need, don't understand and that ties them into buying Asus products and services for ever more."
Ooops! My mistake. That BS meme only works for Apple products,
http://forums.channelregister.co.uk/forum/1/2012/03/12/ipad_shortages/
Re: Got to love it
It rebooted due to an app falling over? That's pretty worrying. An application falling over shouldn't cause a reboot. On Android each Dalvik application runs in it's own process with it's own instance of the Dalvik VM and even a native app shouldn't bring down the machine.
I'd love to buy one, but it won't happen. Can't even sniff one within a hundred miles of me. Retailers just nod knowingly when I ask for it. (Yeah, I'm a curmudgeon that wants to buy it at a retailer and take it home to play.) Worst case scenario, I keep my money and Asus can keep their manufacturing shortage.
ROFL at this...
"We have no plans to kill it," said a PR exec at Asus, "but due to fact that it is selling out so quickly, it looks as though we are stopping [manufacturing] it."
