Asus Transformer Prime Outlook

My prediction:  The Asus Transformer Prime tablet is ultimately going to fail because, among other things, they are attempting to compete against Apple with their specs and hardware – something that’s already been proven to fail.

The tablet market is defining itself right before out eyes.  You can see it in every aspect of every tablet that’s on the market right now.  When the iPad was introduced in January of 2010, Apple basically created the tablet market out of the thin air.  Yes, there’ve been other tablets before the iPad, but Apple leveraged its brand, brought an amazing product to the market place, and created the tablet market as we know it.

But the iPad, and really all of Apple’s products, are sold on the hardware features, not software and content.  And that’s why Apple is able to get away with selling iPad’s starting at $499 – they have the amazing hardware running inside and they make the hardware their selling point – and it sells.

But we’ve seen time and again tablet manufacturers try to step up to the plate and compete with Apple on specs and hardware.  And time and again we see nothing but failure.  One of the reasons Apple is able to sell their devices as successful as they do is because of the Apple brand, period.  You can’t step up to their plate with a lessor known, and lessor followed brand expecting to be able to compete.

Asus Tranformer Prime Is Ultimately Doomed

Because Asus is going to attempt to compete against Apple’s iPad with their specs, and actually try to sell their tablets at the same price points ($499 and $599), this is a recipe for disaster for Asus.

There will be a select few people who show up early to buy the Asus Transfomer Prime once it’s released, and of course some people will be buying it during the pre sale market.  But ultimately, people are not going to show up in droves and pay $499 for an Asus tablet when they can get a brand new iPad for the same price.  Again, Asus is making a huge mistake trying to compete against Apple on specs – you just can’t do it when it comes to tablets, not right now anyway.

The Transformer Prime Should Look To Kindle Fire

If Asus wants to find a market where they have a chance at competing, they should take lessons from Amazon and the Kindle Fire.  The Kindle Fire isn’t even trying to compete with Apple’s iPad, although the media is trying to build that case.  Amazon and the Kindle Fire simply want you, the user, to have fast access to a ton a content – period – and to consume that content in large scale, quickly.

People simply want to turn on their tablet, get online quickly, and start consuming content.  Nobody really cares what hardware is running behind the scenes if it just works the first time.