RIM recalls PlayBook in North America, announces UK launch

Eric Bianchi
May 17, 2011
1 Comment

RIM PlayBook newsResearch In Motion’s (RIM) position in the smart device market has suffered a further deterioration as the company has been forced to recall 1,000 of their new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The devices were not doing what the name might suggest and have refused to PlayBall with RIM’s operating system.

A leaked memo sent to retailers, cited by newmediaage, reportedly read, “Approximately 900 units of the BlackBerry PlayBook have been determined to be faulty. The vendor has provided the serial numbers so we can pull these off the floor and return them immediately.”

RIM later confirmed this was closer to 1,000 units of the 16GB model in their own release. That also said, “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.”

The company is already losing out to Apple and Google’s Android in the smart phone market and this news won’t be of any encouragement to the hierarchy at RIM.

On the same day as recalling those devices in the United States and Canada, RIM has announced the release details for the UK. Retailers are now taking pre-orders for the device that will hit the shelves on June 16. There will be three version of the tablet with the 16GB version coming in at £399. The 32GB will be £479 and the top-of-the-range 64GB incarnation £559.

The prices are similar to that of the iPad 2 although you do have to remember that the screen is an almost microscopic 7-inches compared with Apple’s 9.7-inches of doom.

Also, to gain fully from all the features the PlayBook has to offer, you have to own a BlackBerry otherwise there’s no email and with no 3G the BBM service is pretty obsolete. It’s a handy little device all the same though. Nothing on the iPad, but is anything?

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Tags: Article, Blackberry, PlayBook, RIM
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