Although some might not have expected it, it looks like a certain tablet with a detachable keyboard ended up quite popular, to the point where it sells out almost as soon as it became available for shipment.

Those paying any sort of attention to the happenings on the tablet market might be aware of a certain piece of information.

Basically, a certain tablet known as the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer was said, last week, to be scheduled for sale on April 26, 2011, which is today.

Considering the underwhelming performance of the Motorola XOOM, some might not have had very high hopes for this new device.

Apparently, whatever fears existed were baseless, as something quite unexpected, to some at least, happened.

Basically, the Eee Pad Transformer sold out, on Amazon at least, almost immediately after it was put up for order.

It may be that the way it went from In Stock to Out of Stock in minutes was just a glitch or some such on Amazon's part (unlikely though it may be), seeing as how the listing says the device has not yet been released.

However, BestBuy does have the ASUS tablet up for order, at the same price, although, true enough, it seems to be the only US retailer to still have models on sale.

Of course, given the general IT company caution, it is unclear which factor between limited supply and consumer demand really caused this rapid sell-out.

No doubt the price tag of $400 ($399.99) is playing an important role in the appeal that the Transformer seems to have.

For those that want a reminder, the slate is powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 2 SoC and has 1 GB of RAM, 32 GB (or 16 GB) of Flash storage and all the connectivity (LAN+Wireless) and I/O options (webcam, USB, HDMI) one would expect.