Asus Transformer Prime tablets are on the way, U.S. rep confirms

Pre-ordered a quad-core Tegra 3-powered Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime and feeling anxious that the coveted tablet may not make it under your Christmas tree this year? Asus' U.S. spokesperson has confirmed to me by email that the first batch is already en route to its U.S. partners, with more to come over the next several weeks:

We started shipment of units to our partners last week and supply will escalate quickly over the next couple of weeks.

Assuming you're among the lucky minority whose pre-order was not cancelled by a retailer, your Transformer Prime could arrive this week. In fact, some lucky commenters who ordered from GameStop are reporting they already have their Prime in-hand.

As James Kendrick wrote earlier today, Amazon is now taking orders for the next shipment of the Transformer Prime but this batch won't ship until four to seven weeks later, which will be well into 2012. By then, you ought to be able to walk into a local Best Buy or Office Depot to test out the quad-core goodness before bringing the tablet-laptop combo home. According to Technocrati, Best Buy is listing a slightly earlier ship date than Amazon -- December 30, 2011 -- but that's still well past Christmas 2011.

Considering how much first-gen Transformer users love its form factor and all the raving reviews for the Transformer Prime, IMHO this is one sleek and powerful machine that is worth the wait.

[Source: MarketWatch, PCWorld]

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