Xperia tablets suspended from the market by Sony

GlobalPost

The Xperia tablet by Sony, an iPad competitor, has been temporarily suspended from the market due to an embarrassing manufacturing glitch.

One of the tablet's selling points was that it was water resistant, but a batch of the devices are actually prone to water damage, the Wall Street Journal reported

The company began selling its latest Android tablet in the United States on September 7 in the United States, and also launched in Japan, Europe and other countries. Sony has said that it will repair any of the 100,000 tablets already sold that have issues, Reuters reported

According to the Wall Street Journal,  60 percent of the tablets sold have an error in their production, caused by one of its contracted manufacturers in China. 

The Xperia was released to take advantage of the winter's increased shopping demand, and Sony said it does not expect the defect to hurt its earnings considerably, Bloomberg Businessweek reported

It was not clear when the company, Japan's largest exporter of electronics, would begin selling the device again. 

More from GlobalPost: Can Sony get its mojo back?

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