ASUS Eee Pad Transformer announced in Malaysia

After 6 days of suspense, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer has been officially launched announced in Malaysia. The event this morning was more like a press announcement rather than a launch since it is not available for sales.

According to ASUS Malaysia’s Facebook page, pre-order details will only be revealed tomorrow to the disappointment of many hoping to try out or purchase the tablet today.

Price wise, the 1GHz dual-core ASUS Eee Pad Transformer is going at RM1498 for the tablet only while a combo with the keyboard dock goes for RM1799 as spotted earlier by our sharp-eyed reader. The model which we are getting is the WiFi only version with 16GB of storage. It is interesting to note that ASUS priced the tablet only just RM1 lower than the entry level iPad 2 16GB WiFi model.

When they started their countdown on Facebook, there was quite an attention gained for this device. A dual-core device with a real physical keyboard, who wouldn’t be interested? After the timer ran out, many Eee Pad transformer hopefuls were disappointed that it was merely a media launch with no roadshows or sales activity on ground. This was a wasted momentum created by Asus which could have been translated to actual sales of the tablet.

On the pre-ordering, ASUS should have taken the opportunity to conduct a registration of interest during its earlier countdown instead of after the event. With the pre-ordering activity taking place only tomorrow, next question is when the Eee Pad Transformer be made available in the market? Hopefully we will get more answers tomorrow on ASUS Malaysia’s Facebook page.

Since we’re on the topic of Android tablets, wonder what happened to the HTC Flyer and Maxis’s RM199 offer?

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