ASUS Malaysia has updated their Facebook page to confirm that all 150 pre-order units have been pre-ordered. This of course doesn’t mean that the pre-orders will translate to actual sales because those who have pre-ordered still have the option to opt out of the purchase.
Also ASUS Malaysia has updated via Facebook that the all important keyboard dock is coming “early June” though details are still scarce. The update mentioned that stock of the dock will be sold together with the Eee Pad Transformer. There’s no mention of early-adopters being able to purchase the dock saperately and how much is it going to cost.
So if you’ve pre-ordered and you know that you can only collect your pre-order Eee Pad on May 28, would you still make the purchase now that you know that the Pad and dock is coming “early June”? Or would you wait just a couple of weeks more for the pad+dock to arrive?
The price of the standalone dock is an unknown but we know the price of the dock+pad. For RM1,799, you get the dock and the Eee Pad. That’s RM301 additional if you were to buy the Pad by itself. Question is, would the standalone dock be cheaper or more expensive than RM301?
We might just forgo the Eee Pad pre-order purchase and wait for the dock+pad to arrive instead.
With everyone update, ASUS Malaysia makes if even more difficult for consumers to decide. It’s like they are deliberately sabotaging themselves.
And so our opinion remains. ASUS Malaysia could’ve done a better job with the whole thing. Though interest for the Eee Pad Transformer is still strong despite the many faux pas the marketing team has committed. Let’s hope they’ve gathered a lot of learning from this and make other launches awesome.
