AT&T Launches Its First 4G Tablet - HTC Jetstream

AT&T has a quite a few problems on its hands right now, but aside the blow the company received from the Justice Department in turning down the merger with T-Mobile, there was other news that went largely unnoticed.

ZoomThe company revealed its first 4G tablet, but may have killed the device with a nosebleed price already.

The HTC Jetstream is a sleek device that runs on Android 3.1 Honeycomb and integrates the latest and greatest in hardware. That would include a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, a 10.1" WXGA 1280x768 pixel display, a front-facing 1.3 MP webcam and a rear-facing 8MP camera. There was no information about the pre-installed flash memory, but AT&T said that there is an SDHC expansion slot with support for up to 32 GB, if customer purchases that card extra. The device also comes with 4G LTE/HSPA+ support.

I am scratching my head over the "discounted" price. AT&T said that the tablet can be bought for $700 in combination with a 2-year cellular contract which will cost $35 GB monthly for 3 GB of data, $25 for 2 GB and $15 for 250 MB. Apple is preaching over and over again that the average sales price for an iPad is about $628, which would include the value of the App Store that is added to the iPad as well, as its not so insignificant factor of prestige, which easily offsets the 4G advantage. Pricing a newAndroid tablet at a "discount" $700 raises the question whether AT&T has even an interest to sell these devices.