Tuesday, May 3, 2011

ASUS Transformer good news! Now easy to find

A good news for everyone if they want to buy a ASUS' new Transformer tablet . ASUS Transformer is a polished Honeycomb tablet at a budget price, so we will very dificult to find it. But the Taiwanese company promises retailers this will change soon. We can happy and make a big smile for this news. :D

has talked about the appeal of ASUS' Transformer tablet before, offering as it does one of the more - and perhaps the most - compelling iPad alternatives to date. Repeating exactly why that is would be unnecessary, though hit up the link for the details. The Transformer became available at retail in the U.S. last week and sold out within minutes. A week out from launch, here's where availability stands.
According to the company's official page, people can buy the Transformer at a number of retailers. Here is a select sampling representative of the whole:

Amazon: It remains out of stock, though the retailer provides a helpful option to sign-up to be notified for its availability. Moreover, those who simply can't wait to get their hands on the Transformer can be a premium of at least $160 over the $400 MSRP to buy from a third-party opportunist.
Best Buy: Totally unavailable, either online or in-stores. It is possible a local store somewhere might have one on hand, but weconducted a series of ZIP code searches and could not find a store in any major region showing the tablet available.
B&H: Unavailable, but this retailer does at least let consumers place a pre-order. The bad news? Shipments are not promised until after May 31st.
Buy.com: As of this writing, it is available, but for a massive $750 price tag.
Newegg: The Transformer is listed simply as a "deactivated" listing. This has not changed since launch day.
Walmart: Similar to Amazon, it is not available, but you can sign up for an e-mail list.

At launch day, it was unclear whether this was a supply or a demand issue. Stories about the Transformer have been one of the more popular technology items on world recently, suggesting that there is a lot of consumer interest in the device. The demand is there, and (some) people may be willing to pay well over the $400 price to get one. That said, a large reason of what makes the tablet so attractive is what it delivers for that $400 price tag. At Amazon's current third-party premium of $560 or, worse, Buy.com's $750, ASUS' device is a much different proposition - something that will hardly make Apple worry about their market share.

News broke late yesterday that there is a bottleneck in parts needed to construct the Transformer, particularly its IPS touch screen. Currently, the Taiwanese company can only make 10,000 a month for the entire globe, many which are probably being snapped up in its native country. By the end of this month, the company believes the issue will be resolved, allowing it to scale up to its planned production of 300,000 units per month.

The June production ramp-up is supported by B&H's pre-order listing, so consumers interested in the Transformer simply have to wait a month - and hopefully not too much more. Consumers may get lucky at a local electronics store, but the best course for consumers right now will be to either sign-up with retailers like Amazon or Wal-Mart for notification, or place a pre-order with B&H.
Know of a supplier that actually has it? Share in the comments - but place your order first!

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