HTC and AT&T to offer HTC Jetstream for $699.99 WITH 2-year contract

I enjoy using my HTC Flyer in large part because of the 7 inch form factor and the pen inking experience with Evernote. Today, HTC and AT&T officially announced the HTC Jetstream (previously rumored as the HTC Puccini). Unfortunately, I don't see how it is going to do well priced at $699.99 WITH A 2-YEAR CONTRACT. Unless you are Apple with an iPad, you just can't charge a premium price for a tablet and expect it to succeed as so many have learned.

The HTC Jetstream looks like a larger HTC Flyer with support for the HTC Scribe digital pen. Specifications include:

• 1.5 GHz dual-core processor
• 10.1 inch WXGA display
• Support for AT&T's LTE/HSPA+ wireless data service
• 1.3 megapixel front and 8 megapixel rear facing cameras
• Android 3.1 (Honeycomb) operating system
• HTC Sense
• Unknown internal memory (trying to get this info)
• microSD card slot
• 7300 mAh battery
• Dimensions of 9.87 x 7 x 0.51 inches and 25 ounces

The HTC Jetstream will be available in stores on 4 September and for a limited time AT&T will include the Scribe pen. This reduced contract price of $699.99 requires a two-year contract at $35 for 3GB of data per month. You can also buy it at the full price of $849 with no contract (not disclosed in the press release) and then pay the same kind of monthly data fees available on the iPad at $14.99 for 250MB or $25 for 2GB.

For price comparison, I paid $829 for my 64GB iPad with no contract and the 32GB model is $729 with no contract. The $849 is higher and some may argue it has great design features and specs that beat the iPad, but the bottom line is you cannot compete with the Apple iPad at a higher price.