14 DAY TRIAL // ASUS may have had trouble meeting orders at first, but reports seem to suggest that the situation has not only passed, but that the outfit actually might fulfill its goal of selling its intended target number of tablets by year's end.
There are certain events that took place during the past quarter that cannot easily be disputed, though interpretations may vary.
A few of them are tightly connected to a certain tablet that ASUS developed and officially released some time ago.
Dubbed Eee Pad Transformer, this particular slate went through one of those rare episodes of getting sold out within minuter or hours after being released.
Some time ago, it finally went on sale once again, signaling that ASUS had gotten over whatever shortages had supposedly been plaguing it.
Either way, the arguably famous electronic is shipping around the world and, according to a recent report, may achieve the target annual shipment level after all.
ASUS intends to sell about 2 million tablet PCs by the end of 2011, a goal that may or may not have seemed slightly outlandish at first.
Nonetheless, if the company really is at the level where it sells 400,000 Transformer tablets each month, as Digitimes suggests, this actually could come to pass.
Considering that ASUS has also resolved to unleash the Eee Pad Slider in Autumn, one definitely has cause to expect big overall slate market performance numbers, what with how the sales of this second product will be added on top of the already ambitious Transformer guidance.
In fact, ASUS has supposedly already decided to prepare for 2012, placing orders of 4 to 4.5 million units for the second half of 2011.
Third quarter will see an extra increase in Eee Pad Transformer (or Slider, or whatever else) shipments, with panel providers having been requested to provide 400,000-500,000 displays each month during that time.