Toshiba’s new Excite tablets, announced today at CTIA, are creating as large of an unopened question, as they are a new product line for Toshiba.
The new Excite tablets expand Toshiba’s scope to 13-inch Android tablets, as Android 4.0 becomes more geared towards desktop and laptop-replacement uses. But, Thrive owners still lack Ice Cream Sandwich, and Toshiba may be backing away from statements provided to PhoneNews.com on the matter. We were unable to get a reaffirmation of the statements provided back in January from Toshiba representatives at CTIA.
The Excite is not as much a replacement for the Thrive as it is a refinement; Toshiba’s largest claim to fame with the tablet line is that it is the thinnest tablet to be introduced to the market to-date. It does so at a large performance hit though, choosing slower TI chipsets over the latest CPU/GPU combinations from NVIDIA and Qualcomm.
Going hands-on at CTIA, Excite’s new 13-inch tablet in particular leaves us asking for a bit more. There isn’t any
simple way to transport it like one would an ultrabook or laptop. As a laptop replacement, that alone leaves it standing out as just an oversized tablet… notwithstanding Android 4.0’s limitations which preclude replacing traditional desktop operating systems.
The Thrive itself is not without hardware controversy, appearing to have screen cracking issues that the company has yet to acknowledge.
The Excite tablets are ready to ship, however, and overall from our experiences with them give Toshiba new competitiveness that they did not maintain with the Thrive. With the Thrive, Toshiba had little, if any niche offerings. At one point, Toshiba’s main claim to fame was a full array of SD card options with host USB support. That competitive advantage quickly dwindled. The result left 10-inch Thrive units for selling well under $249 on eBay. Worse, the tablets were branded as “manufacturer refurbished”, but actually turned out to be brand new units… rebadged to prevent market dilution.
Regardless, Toshiba should follow-through and offer an ICS update for Thrive. Considering the lightened-up hardware’s similarities to the Excite hardware, and Tegra 2’s proven-and-demonstrated ability to run Android 4.0 without problem… it’s clear to us that this is a promise that should be kept.
Update: Representatives for Toshiba have re-confirmed to PhoneNews.com that both Thrive models will be upgraded to Android 4.0. The manufacturer does not have a timeline for the upgrade, only assuring that the updates for seven and ten-inch Thrives will be completed before the end of the year. Toshiba stressed that users would in all likelihood nothave to wait until the end of the year to be updated, however.
[…] ICS…This better not be the case Toshiba Backing Away from ICS for Thrive? Excite Tablets Leave Open Question | PhoneNews.com […]
Amazing poor “journalism” here. Toshiba hasn’t backed away from their first statements made months ago so there can be no “re-commitment” Looks like a case of faux headlines to grab users attention to your web site. Shame!
Wow, way to shoot the messenger, Rickster.
It looks like they asked at CTIA if Thrive was still getting the update. As a Thrive owner, I too want to know, as they certainly haven’t published anything online confirming it.
Then PhoneNews.com, getting no answer, wrote them up for it.
PhoneNews.com is the ONLY place that seemed to get Toshiba to say at CES Thrive was getting the update. Toshiba has been silent sense.
THANK YOU PhoneNews.com for staying with this story. Don’t listen to the naysayers!
Well if I were Toshiba I probably would not want to talk to phonenews.com either. For example, the 3 new Excite’s WILL sport the quad-core Tegra 3 … only the LE version will have the omap processor. (which will probably end up on blow-out sales sites) Where does it say in the article above that the 7″ Excite will have an AMOLED display? And that the new Excites will have Gorilla Glass? Phonenews posted on May 8th information that was seriously out-of-date. FYI: Engadget posted the correct information a month previously on April 10th.
The messengers got it all wrong by failing to do their job.
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So, let me get this straight, PhoneNews.com is supposed to have to pull teeth to get answers on ICS, and you’re attacking them for Toshiba still not working with them?
Sorry, it sounds like Toshiba is ticked that they got that commitment in an on-the-spot interview, and aren’t working with them. I seriously doubt PhoneNews.com wouldn’t carry the story if Toshiba would work with them on the level of Engadget.
And considering I knew back in January I was getting ICS… thanks to PhoneNews.com, I’d much rather have PhoneNews.com working with Toshiba, than Engadget. Or both, but I’m sorry Rickster, I thank PhoneNews.com for what they are doing to stand up for Thrive owners.
Engadget runs too much news for me to keep track… and I suspect that’s why they don’t get to the bottom of this kind of stuff.
I almost threw my Toshiba Thrive across the room in anger when I read that headline…
After/when Google’s own Nexus-branded tablet finally debuts, anyone who foolishly continues to buy any other Android tablet from another manufacturer takes their chances in regards to it getting OS updates. Simple as.
Pulling teeth is not required. Publishing accurate information is. At least a half dozen reports on the current configuration of the Excite tablets were extant before this article was posted. This article still has inaccuracies as of 5/12/12 Maybe the publishers here were miffed they were left out of the information loop and decided to strike back with a few well placed barbs.
I still haven’t figured out why the publishers here are interested in publishing articles on tablets with no phones in them. đŸ˜‰
I own a thrive, and paid over 300 dollars for it, this was a mistake, I will not be buying anything that Google does not manage the updates for again, also I would be selling my Toshiba stock right about now, they obviously do not understand the new paradigm. Asus and Samsung will bury them if they refuse to put the resources into keeping their users in the latest software. I guess i will root my tablet so I don’t have to wait for Christmas for a year old OS that the thrive should have been ready for 2 months ago. If you are going to charge what apple wants for their hardware, than you had dam well better spend some engineering resources to keep the product up to date. Toshiba go back to competing with HP on laptops. I will by Samsung or Asus next time.
If thrive doesn’t get ics I’m never buying anything Toshiba again! Thrive is OK but the software sucks.
Seems as if Toshiba is withholding support for the Thrive hoping that we’ll buy the Excite. There is no logical reason that ICS has been released. Other manufactures have managed to do it. Many of us bought a Thrive when it was new and expensive, now that they’re being dumped at fire sale prices, we’re being neglected.
I’m in agreement with Daryl. If Toshiba doesn’t upgrade Thrive to ICS, not only will I never buy another Toshiba produce, I’ll be a thorn in their corporate asses!
Toshiba website confirms “Thrive is Upgradeable to ICS 4.0”
http://us.toshiba.com/tablets/thrive/10-inch
It’s just a matter of time before the ICS will be provided.
DO NOT Panic….but, keep demanding it sooner from Toshiba.
Any dual core (as well as some single cores) tablet is upgradeable to ICS, actually DOING it is the issue.
Now they are saying just a fee more months now that Spring is over. It’s not coming at all. Face it.