Reuters reports that Nokia – the world’s largest mobile handset vendor – has stopped production of its only WiMAX device, which was unveiled just nine months ago. “We have ramped down the N810 WiMAX Edition tablet,” a spokesman told the news agency. “It has reached the end of its lifecycle.” A MobileBurn report claims that distributors are being asked to return any unsold stock to the Finnish vendor. The same article reports that “the abrupt cancellation is reportedly due to the slow WiMAX rollout in the US as well as an issue with the current WiMAX switches in use not offering optimal performance.” Reuters noted that Nokia has not ruled out introducing further WiMAX devices in the future.

Nokia’s move may be regarded as a blow to the future development of WiMAX technology, which to date has seen limited global deployments. The highest profile launches so far have been by US operators Sprint and Clearwire (now both part of a WiMAX joint-venture). WiMAX is generally regarded as a potential competitor to LTE technology, part of the GSM family of technologies. Recently, network equipment vendors such as Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel Networks have scaled back their investment in WiMAX in favour of LTE. In other WiMAX-related news, chip manufacturer Intel plans to write down the value of its stake in Clearwire in Q4 2008, resulting in a non-cash charge of approximately US$950 million.