Eee Pad Transformer is the Android device no one has

When it comes to Android tablets, you know there’s more than just the Galaxy Pad and Xoom, right?

If you said “yes,” you’re probably more up on things than the average American consumer. Among several manufacturers there is a whole slew of tablets powered by Google’s mobile operating system. Many seem to fly under the radar, though, even if they begin to make a splash in the pre-release hype.

No tablet better underscores than than Asus’s once hotly covered Eee Pad Transformer, a tablet that can also be transformed into a more conventional-looking laptop computer.

Good luck finding one. Target, Best Buy, and Amazon all have the device listed as either sold out or on backorder. Usually we’d associate that with a product that has been flying off the shelves and making headlines.

But that’s certainly not the case with the Eee Pad. The mysterious nature of the device is coming to light today as Target.com has offered a $40 off coupon code for the Eee Pad Transformer. The only problem is the site says it won’t ship until as late as four weeks from now, even though the tablet has officially been released.

This is leading prices to be artificially inflated. The device, which was supposed to be landmark in its cost accessibility, is being jacked up on Ebay and Craigslist by hundreds of dollars.

In an earlier story posted on TG Daily, one commenter posted, “I work at a [Best Buy] and know for a fact we don’t have any [of the Eee Pad Transformer] and haven’t heard anything about getting any.”

So the tablet lives on in a sort of phantom state, as if its existence is something of a myth.