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Toshiba Thrive tablet up for pre-order starting at $449, may finally have an official name
Information about Toshiba's Honeycomb tablet has been spotty at best since the company unveiled it amid a sea of like-minded slates way back in January at CES. We've seen it teased and were subjected to some naming confusion, when the company filed a trademark for "Thrive" shortly before the tablet surfaced with the unfortunate ANT moniker -- and on Friday we caught wind via some chatty Twitter accounts that Toshiba is sticking to the former, a fact seemingly verified by new J&R listings for the device. The retailer has 8GB and 32GB versions of the tablet up for pre-order at $449 and $579, respectively. Specs also include a 10.1-inch screen, an NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, 1GB of RAM, WiFi connectivity, and 2MP / 5MP front and rear cameras. The tablet is listed as "coming soon" on the site, though signs seem to point to a release not too long after its Japanese counterpart, at which point we'll see if the Thrive actually manages to live up to that name.
Product portal, tweets suggest 'Thrive' moniker for Toshiba's Honeycomb tablet
"What's in a name?" We'd ask Toshiba, but the company hasn't been able to give its upcoming 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet one in five months -- or has it? If you'll recall, Toshiba registered the name Thrive for trademark and related domain names last month, and now evidence is mounting that all of that work wasn't in vain. TabletCommunity learned days ago that a commercial for the device was in production via some chatty actors on Twitter; soon after, the site also uncovered a parking page for the slate on Toshiba's website, albeit with little more than the aforesaid name categorized under "Tablets." It's a welcome update in light of the vapid titles "Antares" and "ANT300" that had also seemed possible, and once word spills of US pricing and availability, perhaps we can focus on more pressing matters... you know, like benchmarks. [Thanks, Jakob]
iPad nabs 95.5 percent of tablet market
It should come as a surprise to no ones that the Apple iPad completely dominates the tablet computer market right. After nearly a decade of availability, Windows-based tablets have never gained much traction except for a some vertical markets like healthcare. Meanwhile, Android-based tablets have gotten a lot of press in recent months but only a handful cheap, underpowered, off-brand units have actually made it to market. As a result, the iPad currently accounts for 95.5 percent of tablet sales, according to data from Strategy Analytics. The first really serious challenger from the Android camp is the new Samsung Galaxy Tab, which is just going on sale in Europe now and coming to North America in the next couple of weeks. The Samsung will be followed by Android, WebOS and Blackberry entries in the coming months. By the end of the first quarter of 2011 we should have a better idea if anyone can really challenge Apple in this segment.
