A day after Clearwire launched commercially available high-speed WiMax broadband service in a second metropolitan area, Nokia has canceled its N810 WiMax Edition tablet designed only for that network. Why? WiMax's current coverage area is far too small to sustain a niche device.

Nokia'sN810, a GPS-equipped WiFi browser that can play music and video, was modified to add a radio for the 2.5 GHz spectrum range that Sprint Nextel and Clearwire own and lease licenses for in the U.S. TheN810 WiMax Edition, which Nokia offers from their site for $458, was otherwise nearly identical.

Perhaps Nokia is pulling devices out of the market, asMobileburn reports, because the likelihood of hitting mass sales any time soon are extremely low and they want to reduce inventory. (They should give the remaindered units away to non-profits and schools that need broadband in Baltimore and Portland, Oregon if they wanted to write off their current investment.)

WiMax won't become a mass-market mobile and fixed offering until Clearwire manages to push subscriptions beyond tens of millions of people. A tablet is a hard sell in any market outside of niche successes; burdening it with WiMax without the availability of that network standard makes little sense.