[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] Blairware:
Lets be honest here (A struggle at times, it seems)

I agree with the ops decision, even if it's not the right one for me, or you, or anyone else BUT the OP. He was a bit let down, and had spent a tidy sum, as a Brit might say.

I have had my own struggles and disappointments, causing me to want to double post a rant I made yesterday in a thread about docks that work when they want to (which isn't often for these poor chaps)

Shameless Double Post of the days (I didn't want to retype the same "cool story" in a text box with the cursor going hither and yon - man, I see the coloquialisms in the ops thread, no offense at all, but it gets me saying crap like "hither and yon" LOL!)

The Prime, on the whole has had WAY TO MANY ISSUES for comfort, and these have negated it's status as "The" premium Android Tablet. Let's see. We have seen:

1. Wifi and/or Bluetooth throughput and connectivity. 2. GPS clearly not working on MOST tablets, with a few exceptions, perhaps 15-20% that DO work acceptably. (un-scientific approximation) 3. Cosmetic and physical damage issues (perhaps from early reworked tablets that went back for surgery) 4. HDMI Output (or LACK of output would be more accurate) many cases of failure after ICS Upgrade. 5. The Keyboard Dock connectivity failures described in this and several other threads. 6. Screen Banding after ICS Upgrade 7. Freeze/Rebooting after ICS Upgrade 8. Serial Number not found in: Settings, About Tablet, Status. A fairly LARGE number of units affected. no fix, all require replacement.

It appears that the list is GROWING, not shrinking. I am not a "Whiner" in fact I am a reasonable guy, but like many people, there is limits to what I will accept. The Prime, for me at least was my one big tech purchase for myself this year. I don't buy a lot of technology, or at least I don't buy everything that comes out, instead choosing to select one or two premium pieces each year, be it a laptop, a high end phone, or audio upgrade for my car.

I really agonized over my decision to pre-order a Prime, knowing that I had to return my last TF101 by a certain date to get a refund.(of 3; even the OG Transformer demonstrated inconsistent build quality.)

I am on my second Prime. It is almost there. In a preliminary shake out, it rang every bell, except for GPS, and while I wasn't expecting too much there, I wanted to be certain that it could AT LEAST see a few birds, so I know that the circuitry and antenna are at least attached and functioning, even if it's at a miserable level. That way, hopefully if Asus makes ANY progress there, I should be able to benefit from it.

I have never seen XDA forums so full of all this complaining, unhappiness, and general state of anger, frustration and despair even under some of the worst product fiasco's. Usually those were limited to a single or a couple of issues. Nothing like this, though.

Recipe: Take a high end... or rather FLAGSHIP PRODUCT, not just for Asus, but for Android Devices in general, Hype the living heck out of it, making not just the Quad core uniqueness, but describing the slick, super thin,(with a matching super thin, so thin you could shave with it keyboard dock that adds 6 hours run time) super shiny, super fast, super high res, super bright display (sensing a pattern here?). until you have every techheads heart racing, and eyes bugging out. Next draw out the release date announcement, give no official word and let speculation run rampant. Then, set a date EXACTLY one week before xmas. Oh. And make SURE that you have nowhere near enough units available, or shipped or in the supply line. Remember the Asus statement that "we will be filling the supply line on a daily basis, all pre-orders will be filled and we should have stock on shelves by early January (This STILL is not the case, with a smattering of Primes out there at bestbuy, Staples and a few others. This concerns me, since there should be general availability by now. As long as it's a case of Asus working on that "Persistent Perfection" I am okay with it, but it APPEARS that they have slowed production for SOME reason.)

Finally, (and we are all recipients of this "Act III" in the play: "Transformer Prime: The Promise of Persitant Perfection, and the Delivery of Disappointing Distressful DEFECTIVE Dissatisfaction." ) rush your production line to crank these out to meet the huge demand created by all the hype. Don't worry that doing this with a bleeding edge product is sure suicide, and don't be alarmed ahen a LARGE percentage of defects, DOA's and the like. You can work those all out with RMA's LATER.

I found something even more alarming during the stampede to get a Prime. There was one poster, here on XDA-Developers, that, when we heard of the delays and emails up in Canada (sorry for no caps there, using chrome beta, and capital c translates to backspace, LOL!) one delay in particular, that referenced a "bad batch of Primes that had WiFi Issues" (how laughably PATHETIC that sounds now, when we know that the "bad batch" is in fact just a nice sized percentage of ALL Primes)

Any this young fella (I HAVE to assume he was, from his attitude) posted: "I cant WAIT ANY LONGER" Why can't they just ship what they have, and we can RMA them later!"

I swear to God I am not making this up. Little did this poor impatient, naive but mostly innocent babe in the woods know, he was actually visualizing what the future was, LOL!

Seriously though, with the serials having jumped to c1 now, and all the talk about "Asus has stepped up quality control" that is nothing more than wishful thinking (as far as being knowledgeable and accurate) though I am SURE that Asus has devoted SOME resources to this dilema, or horror story might be a better description. Steven King couldn't write a more ghoulish, evil empire (Lucas) story of betrayal (Asus, of it's customers)

We know that Gary Key and team are working on this with a fair amount of intensity, but is it to put the Prime back on the original path? Or is it damage control, pure and simple. The next few weeks will be very telling as to the Prime ultimate success or flop. And I mean FLOP even if they sell millions of them. If they don't resolve each and every one of the issues that have come up like weeds, then woe to them..

because this is Asus' time in the spotlight. They are on center stage and the house is packed. Get it right, and you can bring the house down (with applause)... blow it, and folks are going to remember this for longer than is healthy for a growing Taiwanese company.

One year ago, heck 3 months ago, the only people who ever HEARD of Asus were techies, and geeks like me

Because of the Prime, you are now a contender for the big time, Asus, and I have to say, you seem woefully under prepared!

They put themselves in this position. If you are going to pound your chest and tell the world you have the leading product (ad by association, YOU are a leader, then you best have done your homework, your preparation, your practice and your VALIDATION before you step out onto that stage. Otherwise.... did anyone see that young girl fall off the stage on her HEAD on American Idol last night? THAT is where Asus may find themselves, if they are not ready to make some serious right moves in the next few weeks.

come on Asus: The world watches, and waits: It's your move.