BlackBerry PlayBooks recalled over ‘integral issue’

After a long wait, and less than a month into it being available to the public, Research In Motion’s (RIM) much awaited, slated but also debated PlayBook tablet — the answer to the iPad from BlackBerry’s parent company — is already facing what some are describing as its first major problem.

Though RIM tried to keep the news quiet, the news of a batch of 16GB Playbooks being recalled was leaked over the weekend with a list of corresponding serial numbers. Though it was clear that this was an official recall, the actual problem with the Playbooks had not been specified on the recall order.

However, a thread on CrackBerry, the “official unofficial BlackBerry” aficionado site broke the news of the problems experienced by some Playbook users, described as an integral issue.

The problems users recognised was that when they loaded their Playbook’s for the first time, the user agreement would not load – without the agreement, a user was effectively locked out of the device.

Initial reports stated that the faulty batch of the tablet were sold at Staples, a large US office supplies chain. The leak was based on an internal memo from Staples, dated May (Friday) 13th, which detailed the recall of some 900 units and stated, “Immediate Action Required! Faulty BlackBerry Playbooks”.

Research In Motion, in a statement to CrackBerry clarified the issue, saying that it was not necessarily only Playbooks from Staples which would be or were affected. Furthermore, RIM stated that the recall was not that much of a concern with only a thousand units being recalled and the majority of those units still being in the “distribution channels.”

After months of rumours and speculation on RIM releasing an iPad competitor, the Playbook was officially launched by RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis late last year at the Adobe Max event. It was launched for public sale in the US in April 2011, with a sales figure of 45 000 on its launch day — far less than the iPad 2’s 500 000 first day unit sales.

Perhaps unfairly but certainly humourously, this was tweeted in reaction to the news: “Just to check – when RIM recalls 900 PlayBooks, is that every PlayBook they’ve sold?”

Here’s the full statement from RIM regarding the recall as issued to CrackBerry:

“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.

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.

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.”