It’s not often that a delayed gadget is a cause for celebration. But the emerging news that Asus is holding back its highly coveted Eee Pad Transformer Prime in order to load it up with Android Ice Cream Sandwich is more than welcome. The plan was to release the device on 9 November, but this move clearly proves that the Taiwanese giant wants to get things right the minute the tablet lands.
It all means that consumers will get the perfect experience the minute they get their hands on the device, rather than having to sit tight and use an old build of Android while they wait for an update. When it comes to Android, Asus, it seems, just gets it.
Of course, there is an element of brinkmanship here. Word is that Taiwanese gadget makers were being refused help from Google to get the updates software onto their devices. Asus then went on an aggressive campaign to tout Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS as a future tablet winner, apparently scaring Google into working with it and ensuring issues of fragmentation did not start to affect Android tablets as well as smartphones.
For my money, this proves two things. Firstly, Asus knows that the tech savvy consumers who buy their tablets are not going to want to settle for second best. Yes, Honeycomb is still a smart version of Google’s OS, but it’s not the latest. Those who are buying this tablet, relatively small in number compared to the iPad and even Samsung’s Galaxy Tab range, are obviously first adopters who demand the best. Therefore, enacting this delay and loading the Eee Pad Transformer Prime up with ICS was a no brainer.
Secondly, it shows Google is willing to play ball with manufacturers in getting its new OS out into the wild, although only after some not-so-subtle pressure. Of course, Google’s open approach means that it doesn’t like to interfere with partners plans and prefers a hands off approach. But as the growing worries of fragmentation show, this is a problem that won’t go away unless it’s tackled head on. Google needs to have a firm hand on rolling out updates, and it’s great to see that Asus has forced its hand in this instance.
The Asus Eee Pad Transformer probably won’t sell multi-million units. But it will have the cache of being the first tablet to officially run ICS when it comes out next month. Asus’s move can be seen as a victory for those early adopters who want and demand the best. It clearly understands that to keep these people sweet, it needs to offer kit that is at the very bleeding edge. The same device with Honeycomb on board just would not have been able to match up.
This problem will likely come back around again as the likes of Samsung, Motorola and LG look to update their slates. Here’s hoping that any new kit they do release comes with ICS out of the box, just like Asus’s new effort.
