I just hate seeing the iPad get the business merely by default.

Also, it sounds like Google is seeing the potential for the Prime to increase the Android OS by several million units and may have an interest in helping get ICS on the Prime in time for the holidays.

ASUS is the first manufacturer to come up with a tablet that I thought had the configuration and spec’s good enough to be worth spending my money on and $500.00 is a great price considering those spec’s and the prices of competing tablets. I appreciate them wanting to get it right instead of pushing it out with problems.

I bet your son feels the same way and won’t mind waiting a little longer for the Prime if he has to, but why don’t you ask him and see what he thinks?

My french favorite website that talks and writes only about tablets and tablet-oriented products says that is not going to be cancelled.

Indeed, one of the journalist, who is invited to the press conference, has just confirmed it :
(sorry for the bad translation – google translate only :/ )
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Flesardoises.com%2F4322%2Ftransformer-prime-finalement-sous-ics.html
(go for the last paragraph starting by “edit 2″)

This website is trustworthy. I hope their not wrong.

Anyway, since it is from Paris, 11AM GMT + 1 would be 5AM on November the 9th on the US East Coast !

So … why wouldn’t it be the same way for iPad 3 ? :
- iPad 3 presents new Apple A6
- iPhone 5 presents new iOS 6.0 and uses A6 …

It is not that much rumours nor speculations.

Apple has already order 10″ (iPad size ?) Retina Display screens form LG.
When the iPad 2 was launched, Apple said: iPad 2 is great. But if you want major changes, wait for the third (hard facts !). So iPad 3 is likely to get the Retina Display (something around 2500 x 1024) ;-)
Then, about iPhone 5 : Honestly, I was waiting for a new design at all.
What I really knew for sure it’s that the A5 chip will be one of the few changes. So wether it would be call iPhone 4s or 5 didn’t change anything for me. But I was still disappointed.
No that Siri works on iPhone 4 and 3Gs, what is the difference ? Only the new camera and … the A5. So much for a new revolutionary smpartphone !

How’d that iPhone 5 work out for you??? 

I posted similar comment earlier (i.e. I’ll take it now with Android 3.2 and wait for ICS).  

I know some others feel it may not be a bad strategy to get things right first, and then release.  In some cases, that is a good strategy, and RIM would have been wise following that strategy and released their PB when they had native email client, vs rushing to market as they did.  Not sure they’ll recover (in tablet market) unless RIM OS 2.0 hits a home run.

The difference, here, is that this isn’t Asus’ first tablet!Asus did such a wonderful job in differentiating their Transformer tablet from the rest of the tablet market (Android, WebOS, RIM OS/QSX, iOS, etc) with their functional keyboard combo, outstanding screen, great design, etc…that many would have bought months ago.  People decided to wait, not because of ICS, because a great tablet was going to be much better with a quad core Tegra 3 processor.   I believe the truth is that ASUS needs more time to manufacture more devices, or, more troubling, are still working out some bugs.  Suggesting that they want to coordinate schedules with ICS is an easy way to deflect the blame somewhere else.

I am from France and I follow a website based on news for tablets such as this one, but only for tablets from all the manufacturers there is.
And, one of the redactor says in his last article which is the same subject as the one here (the possible postponing of the upcoming press conference) that he signed a NDA about the Tegra 3.
Since he hasn’t recieved an official announcement regarding this matter (wehter or not there won’t be a press conference tomorrow), the NDA will end by tomorrow and only then he can release all the info he has on the Tegra 3.
I believe that many on-line redactors are in the same situation: they have been contacted by either nVidia or Asus (or both for that matter) regarding the tegra 3 chip and/or the Prime (or, again, both).
So normally, everything will be unveiled tomorrow ! Nice, right ?

- First: THERE HAS NOT BEEN ANY OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING TO WETHER OR NOT THE UPCOMING PRESS CONFERENCE WILL BE POSTPONED.
Sorry for the CAPS but I am not screaming ^^
Re-read the article you will understand that this not official at all. It is a rumour, that’s all ;-)
- Second: (I’m quoting myself ^^)
“If and I stress on the “if” you’re looking on the 2nd generation iPad,
please wait until february for a retina screen display + certainly
amazing quad-core Apple A6 ^^ ;-)”
But of course, if you’re looking for a tablet to offer as a gift in Christmas to your son, then there is a point in waiting for the Prime : wether it’s launched tomorrow or next month, the end-point remains the same: Christmas (unless you’re looking as well for an immediate and personnal use in which case we are the same ^_^ + ;-)  ). So wait ^^
Because I REALLY hardly think that ASUS would purpously japardize its new flasghip tablet’s launch by missing out Christmas … that would make no sense at all ! Right ?
Of course, thanks to its popularity and customers loyalty, only companies such as Apple can afford launching new product whenever they feel it xD They really don’t need to launch new products in targeted times in the year such as Black Friday and Christman in hope to make good sales. ^^

Launching such a product in early December would cause the following situation:

There is quite a high risk that the shipping wouldn’t make it in time : even though it might be on sale on stores, let’s say, a weak before Chritsmas, by that time, most of the customers would have already bought all their holidays presents.
And let me reminded you, especially in this time of economic crisis, that this kind of product is expensive enough that most of the common people can’t and/or won’t afford it ! Right ?

I believe that your Black Friday is highly appreciated since it is around the perfect time in the year to start buying all the presents with nice discounts I might add.
Then even though the Prime won’t get any discount, people are in a big mood of buying.
I remermber spending one Black Friday in a Macy’s Store in NYC. I bought a very nice yet expensive coat for winter from Ralph Lauren. I only got a 11% rebate, which is not very big at all. But I really liked that coat. So much that I am pretty sure I would have bought it even whithout a rebate !
Therefor, if the Prime pleases people and looks like a very very good tablet, people will blindly buy it even with no rebate because it is B.F.

Finally, unless you’re planning on buying this tablet right after it is lauched in december, most basics people would miss it. Am I not right ?

Black Friday is geared towards those consumers that want cheap TV’s, laptops, and other gadgets at a steep discount which the Transformer Prime does not offer.  Lets assume they push the Transformer Prime 1 month back and have a release date of Dec 9th.  I think Dec 9th is still in the heart of Christmas shopping so they won’t be missing out on the holiday season.  If this is indeed true between Asus and Google, then I say go for it.

on the other hand it would be stupid to put out yet another honeycomb tablet when honeycomb itself is a half baked OS and has proven itself in the market as a non-seller.  They only made honeycomb to stop tablet makers from making froyo tablets which would have hurt the android reputation even worse.

A minority of people (probably those posting here) will realize that the tablet would get ICS within a month or 2 as an update and buy it anyway, but the majority of people just look on the box to see what a product comes with and judge based on that if it is a worthy product or not.

So is this a good move or a bad one?  I’m not really sure; a little from column A, a little from column B.

A 7″ tablet is either too big to be a smartphone and to small too be a tablet.
At least it can look like a portable console, which, thanks to Tegra 3 performance, could compete whith the upcoming PSP Vita (which has the same GPU as the iPad 2 if I am not wrong).

If you want a big smartphone -> go Samsung Galaxy Note (more than 5 inches I think)
If you want a nice tablet then – > go buy whatever 10-inches tablet you’re fond of ;-)

Anyway, thanks for the link (even though it didn’t go through xD) !

What only remains, is what ASUS CEO said during the AsiaD Conference where he showed the prime.

And I believe it is wait to late to postpone a press conference (it is past midnight in Asia).

ahahah … this so sadening for Android …

If the past has taught us anything, release a product when its ready and not rush it out in small quantities where the only way you can get hold of one is by paying a premium. Interesting you bring up the Xoom though – arguably the purchasers have been treated more like early adopters given the lack of things like a functioning micro SD card slot.