Asus Trasformer Prime Primed for Sales, Where 2 Buy & Update Soon

The coolest tablet of 2011, the Asus Transformer Prime, continues to sell-out and will be getting an update to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, shortly.  Asus also listened to complaints that the bootloader was locked and will offer an unlocking tool in the future. A few outlets are taking preorders.

The Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich FOTA (Firmware-Over-the-Air) worldwide update for the Transformer Prime will start from Jan 12th, 2012.

For a brief while the Asus Transformer Prime was mislabeled and available from Office Depot .  When we checked today it showed "insufficient stock.'"

Amazon is taking preorders for the 64GB AsusTransformer Prime for $599 and stating orders will ship in 4 to 7 weeks. Amazon does not  show any ability to preorder the 32GB Asus Transformer Prime.  If this round of preorders is like the previous one, it may sell out. Best Buy which previously had some stock shows the Asus Trnsformer Prime "coming soon."

Asus also explained why the GPS does not always work. The metallic body may affect the performance of the GPS when receiving signals from satellites. GPS signals can also be affected by weather, buildings, and surrounding environments.

"To avoid inconveniencing users who demand a powerful GPS device, we made the decision to remove it from our specification sheet and marketing communications," Asus stated.

The bootloader was locked because Asus offered movie rentals with Google DRM. However, Asus is aware there is demand in the modding community to have an unlocked bootloader.  Therefore, ASUS is developing an unlock tool for that community. Once the boatloader is unlocked, movie rentals will be disabled.

There were a few problems with the previous update which caused some Asus Transformer Prime owners to have to get an RMA and send back their tablets.