Android 4.0 Delayed for Toshiba Thrive Tablets

Tech blogs across the net reacted with a similar sense of disappointment when Toshiba announced that its long-awaited “Ice Cream Sandwich” Android 4.0 update for Thrive 7-inch and 10-inch tablets would be delayed until the fall.

“Ice Cream Sandwich” (ICS) is a newly revamped version of Google‘s Android 4.0 operating system, and it was expected to be available on Toshiba Thrives this spring.

The blog ComputerWorld posted the news, along with notes of disappointment.

“I’ll pause a minute for the collective sigh of disappointment,” blogger JR Raphael wrote. “Ah, yes…there it is. Okay, back to it.”

Toshiba announced the news on its message boards.

“We are working hard to bring Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich to our Thrive tablets,” said a message, posted by an official company moderator account on the company message boards. “While we originally estimated it would be ready this spring, we now estimate the update will be delivered to all Thrive 10-inch and 7-inch tablets by early fall. Apologies for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.”

Toshiba didn’t say why the release was delayed until the fall, but the Android-related blog, The Droid Guy speculates the reason could be that there were too many bugs to fix, that ICS is not a priority as Toshiba is busy with other things, or that the plan is to delay the release of Android 4.0 for the Thrive until Android OS.

The Droid Guy reports that the Toshiba Thrive comes with a 10.1-inch display, and a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. Meanwhile, the Toshiba Thrive 7 has a 7-inch display and the same processor. Both devices offer Bluetooth connectivity, GPS, and Resolution+ Video Enhancement.

Until the fall at least, neither has the Android 4.0 ICS update.