RIM ships 1,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets with faulty OS

RIM admitted on Monday to shipping 1,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets with a faulty operating system.

The company said that the majority of the affected devices are still in the distribution channel and have not reached customers.

The fault may result in the devices being unable to load software properly on initial set-up, according to RIM. Only the 16GB model is affected.

"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," said the firm in a statement.

The BlackBerry PlayBook was launched in April aimed at businesses wanting to complement existing BlackBerry enterprise deployments.  

The BlackBerry Tablet OS is based on QNX, which RIM touted for its ability to handle multi-threading operations, and which will eventually replace the BlackBerry OS on all RIM smartphones.

PlayBooks are currently available with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB of storage, and are Wi-Fi only at present.

The tablet was praised in a V3.co.uk review for its portability, at just 425g and 130x194x10mm. However, the downside is that the 7in screen offers a limited desktop.

The news of defective PlayBooks will further hamper RIM's efforts to break into a tablet market dominated by Apple and seeing a strong surge in Android-based devices.

The PlayBook met with a lukewarm reception on its launch in the US, but RIM chief executive Jim Balsillie maintained that many business users will be attracted by a tablet that acts as a secure extension of their BlackBerry.