Sony halts sales of Xperia tablet PCs after detection of flaw

Sony Corp said it sales of its Xperia tablet PCs, had been halted a month after its launch, after detection of gaps between the screen and the case left some of the machines vulnerable to water damage.

According to Sony spokeswoman Noriko Shoji, the problem with the tablet, which was supposed to be water resistant, was the result of a manufacturing flaw at the Chinese plant where it was fabricated. The company has not yet decided when it would resume sales, she added.

Sale of Sony's latest Android tablet started on 7 September in the US followed by launches in Japan, Europe and elsewhere. It has shipped around 100,000 of the devices so far, and said it would fix any of the tablets and expected the cost of the recall to have no significant impact on earnings.

The latest tablet from Sony, which like its smartphone has been branded Xperia in a bid to unify its mobile devices under one name, will compete for space in a crowded still dominated by Apple Inc's iPad.

Apple has a host of challengers in the space with Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, leading the pack.

The Xperia Tablet S is the first device from Sony after it broke up with long-term partner Ericsson. Though its predecessor was simply called the Sony Tablet S, the newer device employs the Xperia brand name that was previously used for Sony Ericsson's Android products.