ASUS TAICHI DUAL SCREEN LAPTOP

Manufacturing of the razor-thin, dual-screened Asus Taichi has hit a bump (or several bumps) in the road, it seems. An Asus spokesperson has announced that shipments will probably begin trickling out some time in December, but there’s an asterisk. They could be pushed back even further.

The Taichi was announced this summer and only officially priced late last month. Several online retailers have been taking pre-orders ever since. Now, however, Amazon and Newegg have decided to put the brakes on. Other sellers have begun completely removing both the 11- and 13-inch Taichi from their inventory listings.

Nevertheless, it’s too soon to completely abandon hope. If you had your heart set on picking up Asus’ dual-wielding 1080p convertibles, the current official word is that you’re just going to have to wait a tad longer. Looking back at another Asus product that had trouble getting off the ground tells another story, however.

The original PadFone met with delay after delay. It took nearly a year for Asus to finally go from displaying the PadFone at Computex to sending out actual devices to buyers in Taiwan. The kicker came just six months later when the company relegated the original to the Island of Misfit Gadgets and revealed the PadFone 2.

It’s hard not to go down that path when Asus isn’t forthcoming with details, though. Is there a hardware holdup? Driver issues? Perhaps the real problem is that the company’s not confident about launching a $1,300, 11-inch laptop with an operating system that the world hasn’t fully warmed up to. Maybe Asus is taking a little additional time to see if it can cut the price even a little to ensure that shoppers won’t suffer from sticker shock and pick up a MacBook Air $899.99 at B&H Photo-Video-Pro Audio for $200 less instead.

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