A definite answer? - Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime

Ok, I keep hearing around here that the TF201 is NOT being discontinued. And it seems reasonable that it would stick around. However, at my company, we had ordered 1 for the CFO and he really likes his and they are talking about ordering 6 more for other managers. The lady that does ordering called our vendor and they are saying that they talked to Asus directly and the TF201 is discontinued now. They said we would have to wait for the TF300.
Has there been any OFFICIAL announcement from Asus either way on this?

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Its been discontinued for a while now as far as i know...because of all the wi-fi and GPS problems this specific model has. I believe the TF300 will be out in June or Q3 of 2012...whilest the TF700t will be out shortly after the TF300.

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alias747 said:
Ok, I keep hearing around here that the TF201 is NOT being discontinued. And it seems reasonable that it would stick around. However, at my company, we had ordered 1 for the CFO and he really likes his and they are talking about ordering 6 more for other managers. The lady that does ordering called our vendor and they are saying that they talked to Asus directly and the TF201 is discontinued now. They said we would have to wait for the TF300.
Has there been any OFFICIAL announcement from Asus either way on this?
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I believe ASUS posted on their facebook page that the TF201 was not being discontinued and this was just a rumor. However this has been a couple months ago now so things may have changed. I also believe Gary Key stated a while back on the forums that the discontinued talk was merely a rumor.
As of March they are still manufacturing the TF201 as we have seen C3 serials show up in stores. It will be another week or two before we see C4 serials. If we don't start to see C4 serials after a couple of weeks then this would most likely indicate that it is being discontinued.
However, I strongly believe that ASUS is not and will not be discontinuing the TF201 any time soon. This is just speculation. And to answer your question as far as whether or not ASUS has provided an official statement, they have but it has been a couple of months since they did so.

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alias747 said:
Ok, I keep hearing around here that the TF201 is NOT being discontinued. And it seems reasonable that it would stick around. However, at my company, we had ordered 1 for the CFO and he really likes his and they are talking about ordering 6 more for other managers. The lady that does ordering called our vendor and they are saying that they talked to Asus directly and the TF201 is discontinued now. They said we would have to wait for the TF300.
Has there been any OFFICIAL announcement from Asus either way on this?
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It is definitely discontinued and has been for several months, and this is evidenced by the VP of marketing on this site saying that it hasn't been discontinued. There are too many problems evidently (1% of all primes have issues).

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babymatteo said:
Its been discontinued for a while now as far as i know...because of all the wi-fi and GPS problems this specific model has. I believe the TF300 will be out in June or Q3 of 2012...whilest the TF700t will be out shortly after the TF300.
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I was not aware it had been discontinued. Why do you think this is still here?
usa.asus.com/Tablet/Transformer_Pad/Eee_Pad_Transformer_Prime_TF201/

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Not this rumor again..lmao. Prime is not being discontinued. PERIOD. End of story. The Asus representative, Gary, even said in his Unofficial thread here just recently that it wasn't going to be discontinued. They still sell it online and at Gamestop, Best Buy, and other brick n mortar stores.
Look at his more recent updates in the op of that thread and you will see. Tell your boss he needs to find another retailer selling it..lol. there are still new people popping in xda everyday with new primes. Plus there's already C3 models out now. Soon we will see C4 ones.
Plus Prime is still heavily advertised on official Asus website. If it were to be discontinued, they would've quickly and easily of removed that info from website. People overreacting..lol.
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babymatteo said:
Its been discontinued for a while now as far as i know...because of all the wi-fi and GPS problems this specific model has. I believe the TF300 will be out in June or Q3 of 2012...whilest the TF700t will be out shortly after the TF300.
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Actually the tf-700 might not release in the u.s. at all. Plus now they are saying it won't be released anywhere until end of year more than likely. Check out the other thread where someone posted an email from Asus on the infinity pad.
Plus if it were discontinued, we would constantly see new model serial numbers pop up. Don't believe all the negative discontinued hype.

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demandarin said:
Not this rumor again..lmao. Prime is not being discontinued. PERIOD. End of story. The Asus representative, Gary, even said in his Unofficial thread here just recently that it wasn't going to be discontinued. They still sell it online and at Gamestop, Best Buy, and other brick n mortar stores.
Look at his more recent updates in the op of that thread and you will see. Tell your boss he needs to find another retailer selling it..lol. there are still new people popping in xda everyday with new primes. Plus there's already C3 models out now. Soon we will see C4 ones.
Plus Prime is still heavily advertised on official Asus website. If it were to be discontinued, they would've quickly and easily of removed that info from website. People overreacting..lol.
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Actually the tf-700 might not release in the u.s. at all. Plus now they are saying it won't be released anywhere until end of year more than likely. Check out the other thread where someone posted an email from Asus on the infinity pad.
Plus if it were discontinued, we would constantly see new model serial numbers pop up. Don't believe all the negative discontinued hype.
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Yeah I hear you... however, best buy apparently is no longer carrying it. They don't ship it online, and no Best buy within a 200 miles radius of me has it in stock. That includes most of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis/St. Paul area... I think that if they were still actively in production don't you think that somebody would have them in stock? This all seems a little fishy to me... I even looked at bigger cities for Best Buy stock and nothing in Chicago or California area either... The only reason I got mine was because it was a open box that I got at my local Best Buy about a month ago. And mine is one of the older S/Ns, BCOKAS.
Just an observation...

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alias747 said:
Yeah I hear you... however, best buy apparently is no longer carrying it. They don't ship it online, and no Best buy within a 200 miles radius of me has it in stock. That includes most of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis/St. Paul area... I think that if they were still actively in production don't you think that somebody would have them in stock? This all seems a little fishy to me... I even looked at bigger cities for Best Buy stock and nothing in Chicago or California area either... The only reason I got mine was because it was a open box that I got at my local Best Buy about a month ago. And mine is one of the older S/Ns, BCOKAS.
Just an observation...
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That's a good observation. I think its more of Asus retooling or adding new components to newer/future primes to eliminate possible issues. We have seen other similar letters like in op stating that. Plus prime can still be found online and at Gamestop. I know the one in my area has them in stock because I called the other day looking for a dock. They said they had no docks ATM, that they only had the tablet itself in stock at that store. Plus there are alot more places than best buy online that would have it. Still doesn't explain the flood of new owners showing up in prime forum everyday. Still doesn't explain why Asus still advertises it on their official u.s. and global website. Which is always updated with new info on products they carry.
I don't feed into the negative stuff as it tends to come more from past complainers and trolls. They love to stir up stuff in prime forum for others. Looking at everything in a negative way and put some crazy spin on things.
I had my Prime since 12/22. An early BCOKA model and works great. Haven't had any real problems with it. Wifi works great on it as I compared it to my Ipad wifi and atrix wifi. Prime is right on par or better than my other units.

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It is not being discontinued but im sure if it weren't for the Prime owners complaining, they would've discontinued it. There are clear wifi/gps problems with the Prime due to the aluminum back (hence why their new line has a rubber/plastic strip). There is no reason for ASUS to have so many lines of products with such little differences.
And I'm gonna make a bold guess here, but I think they would much rather replace the Prime with the TF700 and make it $500 instead of $600. The reason they are making it $600 is so that it will seem like a "premium" Prime instead of a Prime replacement. Placing the TF700 at $600 would mean that it surpasses the price of the iPad that has a even higher res display and LTE. And frankly, the general consumer is unlikely to buy a Android tab that is as expensive as the iPad let alone more expensive.

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xGary said:
It is not being discontinued but im sure if it weren't for the Prime owners complaining, they would've discontinued it. There are clear wifi/gps problems with the Prime due to the aluminum back (hence why their new line has a rubber/plastic strip). There is no reason for ASUS to have so many lines of products with such little differences.
And I'm gonna make a bold guess here, but I think they would much rather replace the Prime with the TF700 and make it $500 instead of $600. The reason they are making it $600 is so that it will seem like a "premium" Prime instead of a Prime replacement. Placing the TF700 at $600 would mean that it surpasses the price of the iPad that has a even higher res display and LTE. And frankly, the general consumer is unlikely to buy a Android tab that is as expensive as the iPad let alone more expensive.
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I second that. I believe tf700 will completely replace TF201.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

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i want to see the tf300 already! didn't it already go through the fcc?

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My honest opinion is..
Why when the new models come out would they carry on making a Tablet that even Asus admits is flawed due to all Aluminium back.
Think Logically if the new models were available now & after reviewing options, would you purchase the TF201 ?
I do not think when new models are released there will be very little, if any demand for the Prime, so the Prime really is living on borrowed time.
As for Demandarins statement
Plus Prime is still heavily advertised on official Asus website. If it were to be discontinued, they would've quickly and easily of removed that info from website
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Surely you are not that naive, Asus would not admit to prime being discontinued untill it has replacement in shops, they want to keep selling primes untill replacement is in shops. Admitting it was discontinued now would greatly affect Sales.
Within 2 or 3 months of the TF300/700 being released the Prime will meet a quiet quick demise.
PS
I own a prime & dock which I am quite happy with apart from useless GPS

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alias747 said:
Yeah I hear you... however, best buy apparently is no longer carrying it. They don't ship it online, and no Best buy within a 200 miles radius of me has it in stock. That includes most of the Twin Cities, Minneapolis/St. Paul area... I think that if they were still actively in production don't you think that somebody would have them in stock?
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Just your area. Prime is still available from Best Buy, not online, you just have to search local stores for inventory. Several around me are in stock atm.

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flub said:
My honest opinion is..
Why when the new models come out would they carry on making a Tablet that even Asus admits is flawed due to all Aluminium back.
Think Logically if the new models were available now & after reviewing options, would you purchase the TF201 ?
I do not think when new models are released there will be very little, if any demand for the Prime, so the Prime really is living on borrowed time.
As for Demandarins statement
Surely you are not that naive, Asus would not admit to prime being discontinued untill it has replacement in shops, they want to keep selling primes untill replacement is in shops. Admitting it was discontinued now would greatly affect Sales.
Within 2 or 3 months of the TF300/700 being released the Prime will meet a quiet quick demise.
PS
I own a prime & dock which I am quite happy with apart from useless GPS
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I would easily purchase the prime over those 2. here's why. I don't want a lower spec 300 model. its less powerful, less battery life, display not as good. its regular ips, not ips+ like on prime. plus FCC report already shows 300 wireless performance can't be expected to be better than prime. especially with wifi/BT used at the same time. I don't want a tf-700 model because it will cost more. has less battery life than prime. plus, according to an email posted by another member is from Asus VP of technical whatever states no plans for u.s. release of infinity pad and it won't be released anywhere till the end of the year likely. check it out. so I have no reason to wait. fully satisfied with my prime.
we are still seeing new serial number Models pop up. we had Asus publicly and on this forum stating Prime will not be discontinued. AND YES, ASUS ADMITTED TO LESS THAN 1% OF UNITS HAVING ISSUES AND BEING RETURNED. It was stated on Cnet interview, which they said makes sense, and Gary explained it on this site. So no real concrete proof pointing to them discontinuing it. Come with some better info to back up the claim and then maybe me n others might believe it also. till then, just speculation and false rumors just like the other stuff floating around.
all their tablets now fit a particular price range including the prime. so I would easily take it over the others. its the thinnest and lightest. plus performs great all around. Plus Asus wouldn't happen to be working on a big announcement concerning prime if it were to be discontinued. they wouldn't even have bothered spending the money or research behind a fix to a product to be discontinued. they would just focus on future products instead and let prime die off.
better luck next time. Prime will live on. We will continue to knock all these false rumors down one by one..lmao

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@demandarin
We will have to wait and see who is right
For me the I'm in the Prime is on its Way Out Camp. My guess is TF700 will come out costing $100 more & within very short time primes funeral & TF700's price will drop to what prime is now to compete with that fruity competitor.

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flub said:
@demandarin
We will have to wait and see who is right
For me the I'm in the Prime is on its Way Out Camp. My guess is TF700 will come out costing $100 more & within very short time primes funeral & TF700's price will drop to what prime is now to compete with that fruity competitor.
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You have my $5 on that.
Dem, if you look at it, there is definitely no place for TF201 in the pad line up. 3 of them overlap each other too much.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

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tinky1 said:
You have my $5 on that.
Dem, if you look at it, there is definitely no place for TF201 in the pad line up. 3 of them overlap each other too much.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
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I do agree, the devices are spec similar. BUT at least its more of a major difference compared to Samsung lineup of tablets. they have all different lineup and spec similar. except for one thing, all their stuff is highly overpriced. at least Asus has a more reasonable priceline.
I can see prime ending around next winter or so. but by then that's the natural cycle of tablets ending anyways. Tf-700 has already been stated to not release till the end of the year. check the letter from Asus VP of something thread. so that gives prime plenty of time to still sell. by the time tf-700 finally comes out, it'll be the natural ending cycle for prime anyways. that's how technology is.
with the specs of the prime, it still has a place that fits in the lineup. regardless what some may believe. then you have the Asus built Google nexus tegra3 7in. tablet said to come out. ill say prime won't be discontinued anytime soon. for any product, there always come a time down the road when its discontinued. Wait till the announcement is released then tell me again does it make sense that they will discontinue the prime.
lets say they do discontinue it soon, so what..lol. it won't stop my Prime from functioning or performing great. it won't stop the major developement we already have for it. it still won't stop up getting updates, at least for a good while. So prime owners good either way. they already discontinuing the tf-101 less than a year from being released. to have it replaced by 300 model. tf-101 model just got ICS so it's still receiving support. Discontinued or not, Asus supports their products down the road. So I'm not worried anyways. I already plan on keeping my prime till Tegra4 releases at the end of the year. So once people finally able to buy infinity pad, Asus will announce the new Tegra4 powered Transformer pad..lmao. tegra4 is worth the wait if you already own a prime, IMO. nothing else announced to come out really grabs my interest. except to tegra3 powered Google nexus tablet built by Asus. that'll be so cheap ill get one anyways. most other new tablets coming out for android will be tegra3 powered anyways. there's like over 12 tablets announced and set to release eventually that will be tegra3 powered. they all are listed in another thread.
So ill take that bet also. if I lose, ill gladly admit I was wrong. but people make it seem like this will happen in the next month or something...lol. prime will be discontinued on its natural cycle ending date for tablets.

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demandarin said:
I do agree, the devices are spec similar. BUT at least its more of a major difference compared to Samsung lineup of tablets. they have all different lineup and spec similar. except for one thing, all their stuff is highly overpriced. at least Asus has a more reasonable priceline.
I can see prime ending around next winter or so. but by then that's the natural cycle of tablets ending anyways. Tf-700 has already been stated to not release till the end of the year. check the letter from Asus VP of something thread. so that gives prime plenty of time to still sell. by the time tf-700 finally comes out, it'll be the natural ending cycle for prime anyways. that's how technology is.
with the specs of the prime, it still has a place that fits in the lineup. regardless what some may believe. then you have the Asus built Google nexus tegra3 7in. tablet said to come out. ill say prime won't be discontinued anytime soon. for any product, there always come a time down the road when its discontinued. Wait till the announcement is released then tell me again does it make sense that they will discontinue the prime.
lets say they do discontinue it soon, so what..lol. it won't stop my Prime from functioning or performing great. it won't stop the major developement we already have for it. it still won't stop up getting updates, at least for a good while. So prime owners good either way. they already discontinuing the tf-101 less than a year from being released. to have it replaced by 300 model. tf-101 model just got ICS so it's still receiving support. Discontinued or not, Asus supports their products down the road. So I'm not worried anyways. I already plan on keeping my prime till Tegra4 releases at the end of the year. So once people finally able to buy infinity pad, Asus will announce the new Tegra4 powered Transformer pad..lmao. tegra4 is worth the wait if you already own a prime, IMO. nothing else announced to come out really grabs my interest. except to tegra3 powered Google nexus tablet built by Asus. that'll be so cheap ill get one anyways. most other new tablets coming out for android will be tegra3 powered anyways. there's like over 12 tablets announced and set to release eventually that will be tegra3 powered. they all are listed in another thread.
So ill take that bet also. if I lose, ill gladly admit I was wrong. but people make it seem like this will happen in the next month or something...lol. prime will be discontinued on its natural cycle ending date for tablets.
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last i heard they were debating on tegra 3 vs something else for the nexus tablet. something changed?
also kindle fire 2 will be coming out around the end of the year with tegra 3. i guess we'll see how the battery life measures up. but if you are in the market at present for something with good battery life..the acer iconia a510 contains a 13 hr video playback battery life according to its specs.

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demandarin said:
I would easily purchase the prime over those 2. here's why.
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Didnt you say a while back, that the 300 would have been your pick if it was available back then when the prime came out?

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jblah said:
last i heard they were debating on tegra 3 vs something else for the nexus tablet. something changed?
also kindle fire 2 will be coming out around the end of the year with tegra 3. i guess we'll see how the battery life measures up. but if you are in the market at present for something with good battery life..the acer iconia a510 contains a 13 hr video playback battery life according to its specs.
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hold up..First thing is first..lmfao. where in da world did you hear kindle fire2 will have tegra3 also? I've never seen any hint of that. could be possible but very shocking. I doubt they will use that chip as its out of their league..lol.
To your first statement, they were debating ln it at first. now this is all according to tech sites rumors and speculations. at first it was said to have tegra3. then we heard to cut down on price they were going to use a lesser spec chip. then just recently, all reports show them going back with tegra3 and they will city costs elsewhere, which I think is good idea. Google nexus tablet needs to be powerful and low priced. this is to look more enticing than kindle fire or nook. so the latest spec on nexus tablet is that it will be made by Asus and still will use tegra3.
I heard about that Acer battery life. we will have to see what the real battery life performance will be once it releases. Prime + Dock still has best battery life of all. 18+ hrs. estimated battery life combined. plenty of people came in this forum and said if you think Asus has problems, Acer is alot worse. it'll be like going from jumping into a small fire to jumping into a volcano..lol. so I'm very skeptical on Acer products based on what other Acer owners that passed through here have said.
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junrider said:
Didnt you say a while back, that the 300 would have been your pick if it was available back then when the prime came out?
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if it was before prime was ever announced or released. sure. its cheaper priced. but I have no regrets on my prime purchase at all. it has performed to well for me. I wouldn't downgrade or get rid of my prime to get a lower spec 300. I do love the new colors though. I think the whole Asus line of tablets will be good. it will just depend on how much you can afford or willing tl spend. not everyone wants to dish out $500-700 for a prime or infinity pad. only reason I spent this much on a prime because I bought it as a Christmas gift to myself. plus I know its more than powerful enough that I won't need another tablet for a long time. Tegra4 powered Asus tablet is what I'm waiting for next. till then, prime does everything I ask of it just fine. This really is a great tablet. I never use my Ipad anymore. Prime is soo sexy Sleek n lightweight. lol