Wrong playbook
The story broke over the weekend that RIM has had to recall around 1,000 BlackBerry Playbooks in the US due to a software glitch. The problem, it seems, prevents users from signing a user agreement, which in turn unlocks the rest of the functionality of the device.
Specialist site crackberry.com got the official line from RIM:
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.
As many commentators have subsequently noted, such a small recall is not usually considered worth reporting on, but the spotlight is firmly on RIM these days. This is because, not only does RIM seem to be following Nokia in losing smartphone market share hand over fist, the Playbook is currently the main non-Android tablet alternative to the iPad.
Hopefully for RIM this is just a small, localised thing, but it can ill-afford to suffer any bigger setbacks to the Playbook considering the competitive pressure it's under.
