Poor PlayBook sales force RIM to scale back in Taiwan

Research In Motion has reportedly cut production orders for its PlayBook tablet device following poor sales, leading to around 1,000 job losses at the outsourced factory, Quanta Computer.

Quanta Computer was ordered to avoid using mainland China based factories to avoid imitations of the PlayBook being leaked to local competitors, so set up a dedicated facility in Taiwan, which has now been hit by the poor sales.

RIM had forecast sales of 4-5 million PlayBooks in 2011, but reported sales of less than 800,000 in the first six months of the year.