Thunderbolt Strikes! $249 on contract, $749 Retail

The HTC Thunderbolt is coming! Verizon’s first LTE phone is of course powered by Android, and due out on the 24th of this month. There has been a lot of conjecture as to when the phone would come out this month, but its all set in stone now. Some people feel that the phone is coming out 14 days after the Verizon iPhone on purpose to avoid returns, but that’s hard to prove. The contract price for this bad boy will be $249, which is more than we are used to. Could this be a precedent for future LTE phones as well? I don’t think the $50 increase in price will stop this one from being a huge seller. For those of you who don’t want to commit for another 2 years, the retail price of the phone will be $749, a mere $50 less than the XOOM. While I know the XOOM can’t make calls, it might be the better choice of the two if you are going to shell out the retail cost, which also comes out on the same day. HTC has a very strong and loyal fan base, so I can see this one being a big deal, especially since it’s the first LTE phone. The pricing of LTE plans hasn’t been officially announced yet, but lets hope that the first few to sign on board get some type of promotional pricing. You can check out the specs of the device over at HTC while you patiently wait for the 24th.