Toshiba ANT Android Tablet to be Called Thrive

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Toshiba is set to launch its Android Honeycomb-powered tablet soon. While earlier reports had it named as “ANT” because of the model numbers, a recent trademark application indicates that Toshiba intends to brand it as “Thrive.”

The Toshiba Android Honeycomb tablet first made its appearance at CES 2011, although no specific branding had been introduced. The product was then leaked through Amazon and NewEgg listings, indicating a price of $450 for the basic 8GB model, $500 for the 16GB model and $580 for the 32GB model. Some speculations as to the branding either had it at ANT or “Antares.”

Now, Toshiba has applied to trademark the term “Thrive” and has also registered domains for the new tablet, namely ToshibaThrive.com and ThriveTablet.com. This means Toshiba is likely to make a release under the “Thrive” brand sometime soon.

The upcoming Toshiba Thrive will be powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core chipset, 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen displaying 1280×800 pixel resolution, and a user-replaceable 7-hour battery.

No official launch date has been set, but Toshiba expects a launch by May 2011. Interestingly enough, LG has its own Android-based smartphone called the LG Thrive. Will the LG Thrive and Toshiba Thrive conflict in terms of branding?