RIM issued a recall over the weekend for about 1,000 PlayBook tablets. Until now, we weren’t sure of the reason for the recall.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]RIM’s PR firm contacted The Loop and said the recall was issued because of an operating system issue. The flaw left affected tablets unable to load software during initial setup, cutting users off from the PlayBook’s growing app library — everything from enterprise email clients and media players to a real money slots app the platform had recently added to its catalog. It also wasn’t known whether the PlayBooks in question had made it into customer’s hands or whether they were still in distribution. RIM answered that question too.

“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,” RIM said in their statement given to The Loop.

“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.”