May 20, 2011 14:31 GMT  ·  By

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion started selling its first tablet PC only several weeks ago, yet it seems that the device is already proving to be a disaster, if some of the latest reports around the Internet are to be believed.

Put on shelves on April 19th, the tablet PC, dubbed the BlackBerry PlayBook, missed internal sales estimations at a retailer by as much as 90 percent, BGR notes in a recent article.

Moreover, the retailer claims that the PlayBook is being returned at rates much higher than the Motorola XOOM. The return rate for XOOM is already very high at 7 percent.

Overall, the sales of this device have been disappointing, the said “source from a major big box retailer” claims.

Previous reports suggested that RIM might have managed to move over 250,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets during the first month of availability, which would be rather impressive.

RBC Capital Markets Managing Director Mike Abramsky noted only a few days ago that RIM might have been capable to sell over half a million devices before the end of their first fiscal quarter.

Moreover, the total sales could rise up to as much as 2 million during the first 12 months of availability of the device.

Initially, the company was expected to sell over 6 million BlackBerry PlayBook devices before the end of the first year of availability.

However, it seems that sales are sluggish, and that the tablet PC might miss estimations by far, at least this is what recently provided info from the retailer would imply.

The PlayBook was unveiled in September last year, but RIM needed over half a year to have it ready to ship to users.

Provided that the info on the tablet's return rate is accurate, it seems that RIM did not manage to eliminate all issues with it either, and that early adopters are unhappy with it.

Recently, RIM issued a recall order for around 1,000 PlayBook devices affected by a series of software glitches.