RIM Announces Recall Of 1,000 Faulty Playbooks

Research in Motion has confirmed the recall of up to 1,000 faulty Playbook tablets due to a problem with the operating system.

It seems that the fault first came to light when RIM began notifying its distribution partners that there was a problem with some of the tablets. A leaked memo to Staples was seen by Engadget, which published a photo of the document.

“Approximately 900 units of the Blackberry PlayBook had been determined to be faulty,” read the memo. It provides a list of serial numbers for store employees to check against. Only the 16GB versions of the 7-inch tablet are said to be affected.

RIM Confirmation

Engadget then provided a complete listing of the serial numbers of the affected batch of Playbooks.

RIM then apparently confirmed the memo was genuine when it issued the following statement to Crackberry, in which it confirmed that only the 16GB models shipped to Staples were effected. RIM believes that most of the problem units have not been sold yet.

“RIM determined that approximately one thousand BlackBerry PlayBook tablets (16 GB) were shipped with an OS build that may result in the devices being unable to properly load software upon initial set-up,” reads the RIM statement.

“The majority of the affected devices are still in the distribution channel and haven’t reached customers. RIM is working to replace the affected devices,” it added. “In the small number of cases where a customer received a PlayBook that is unable to properly load software upon initial set-up, they can contact RIM for assistance.”

Software Problem

The exact nature of the problem with the faulty batch remains unclear at this time, but it seems as ifthe QNX operating system contains a bug that prevents users from loading software when the tablet is first being set up.

Yet it seems somewhat strange that the problem could not be fixed by an over-the-air update, but needed a recall.

The problem comes at a tough time for RIM, which recently got a rough ride from analysts over its sluggish response to the challenge posed to it by Apple and Android. Matters were not helped when RIM delayed the arrival of the Playbook, which went on sale last month.

Tablet Performance

Unfortunately the tablet recieved  a spate of mediocre and negative reviews, which has not helped it win the hearts and minds of potential customers.

In April the Wall Street Journal reported that “many analysts expect the company to ship somewhere [between] 2 million to 4 million tablets during the 2011 calendar year.” That said, there is no official word yet on how actual sales of the device are going.

RIM has attempted to differentiate its 7-inch PlayBook from the flood of rival Android-based devices. It ships with its proprietary QNX-based operating system which is reportedly good at multitaking. It also has a touch-sensitive casing for navigating on-screen menus.

But the lack of native emailing capability runs the risks alienating those with other types of smartphones, as rhe BlackBerry Bridge tethering feature only works with BlackBerry handsets. The PlayBook displays a nearby BlackBerry’s emails, calendar and other vital information – all of which disappear once the smartphone is taken out of range.