Asus is trying to do what others so far haven't been able to, which is to knock the iPad off its perch as the most popular tablet PC. Samsung's Galaxy Tab wasn't able to do it, and neither could Motorola's Xoom. RIM's PlayBook held promise, but the lack of email and contacts support for non BlackBerry owners are major omissions. Will the Eee Pad Transformer present the first real challenge to the iPad?It's too early to tell, but it at least appears that Asus' convertible tablet is off to a heck of a start. The Eee Pad Transformer went on sale in the U.S. today, and according to Engadget, Amazon.com sold out of the device within minutes of listing it. Orders were being fulfilled by Target, which also lists the device as unavailable.
If you head over to Asus' "Where to Buy" page, you'll find several vendors listed, but none of them turn up an in-stock Eee Pad Transformer. That means one of two things. Either the convertible tablet sold out hella fast, or there wasn't much supply to begin with.
As a refresher, the Eee Pad Transformer comes with a 10.1-inch display, Nvidia Tegra 2 processor clocked at 1GHz, 1GB of DDR2 memory, 16GB of internal storage, 1.2MP webcam, 5MP rear facing camera, 4-in-1 media card reader, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a 40-pin docking port for an optional keyboard/docking station, transforming the tablet into a bona fide netbook. All this comes wrapped in Google's Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) platform.
What's more, Asus is bucking the trend of $500+ tablets by selling the Eee Pad Transformer for $400, sans keyboard.
