Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK)’s elusive 810 WiMax tablet may finally be available for sale this October, months after first appearing on cyberspace retail sites.

The tablet PC-style device from the top-ranked global mobile phone vendor is significant because it will be the first handheld device available on Sprint’s XOHM WiMax network, which has just gone live for users in Baltimore and is expected to be commercially launched in Chicago and Washington before the end of the year. (See XOHM WiMax Is Finally On, XOHM's Big WiMax Demo Day, and Slideshow: Motorola's WiMax House.)

The operator is offering PC cards and modems and has some embedded WiMax laptops in the pipeline.

The 810 was on display at the XOHM WiMax celebration in Baltimore yesterday and a XOHM sales representative told Unstrung that the unit will possibly be available “within the next couple of weeks.”

"I’ve heard the 17th bandied around," the rep said. "So they’ve decided on a go date."

The Linux-based tablet has a large color display, touchpad screen, slide-out keyboard, and up to 10GB of memory. It has WiFi connectivity as well as WiMax.

You can try to buy the 810 WiMax for around $400 on a number of retail sites, but right now it is listed as “out of stock” on every outlet Unstrung has checked. (See Nokia's WiMax Brick, Nokia's WiNot, and Sprint Plots Dual-Mode CDMA-WiMax.)

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung</