RIM Loses £1m of PlayBooks in Delivery Truck Theft

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion managed to shift 5,000 of its struggling PlayBook tablets in a single day last week, as the truck they were in was stolen.

RIM can't seem to get anything right recently, and the theft of £1 million worth of PlayBooks is the Christmas present no one at the Canadian company wanted after a truly torrid year.

The theft took place last Thursday, when a delivery truck containing 22 pallets of PlayBooks was stolen at a service station in the American state of Indiana while the driver used the bathroom.

The Herald Bulletin website reports: "According to Mike Milbourn of the Chesterfield Police Department, the theft happened while the semi's driver stopped at the Pilot Travel Center along Indiana 67, west of Interstate 69. Milbourn said the driver left the vehicle to use the bathroom in the plaza."

With no tracking equipment on the truck, it's very unlikely that the ill-fated tablets will be found, further adding to the curse that has befallen BlackBerry in 2011 as the PlayBook has sold miserably compared to the Apple iPad 2.

RIM has had no luck with the PlayBook, which has seen price cut after price cut but still posted disastrous sales - in the third quarter RIM sold just 150,000 tablets, compared to Apple, which sold 11 million iPad 2s.

Retailers have been forced to offer the PlayBook free with BlackBerry handsets but even this hasn't helped to increase sales.

Earlier this month, two RIM executives were sacked after forcing a plane to divert due to their drunken and violent behaviour.