Research in Motion is finally launching their own answer to the iPad on April 16 in the form of the BlackBerry PlayBook, and if the rumors are true they’ll even be hitting iOS with a new BlackBerry Messenger app shortly thereafter.

9to5Mac is reporting that Research in Motion appears to be putting the wraps on an iOS version of their popular BlackBerry Messenger application, which has long been considered the best part of using a BlackBerry. According to a tipster on the MacRumors forum, the app could land in the iOS App Store on April 26.

“RIM had a Social Media conference today in Toronto, and my entire college business and marketing class was invited to the event,” the tipster reveals. “RIM’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie revealed that they plan to bring BBM and ‘other services’ to iPhone on April 26 via the App Store. Balsillie also revealed that they plan to release an update to the app this summer which will take advantage of a new ‘notification system’!”

Did you catch that? While it seems unlikely that a RIM CEO would know anything about Apple’s future iOS plans, the claim of a “new notification system” sounds an awful lot like Cupertino may finally be revamping their user-hostile notifications at long last. But with many pundits claiming that iOS 5 won’t arrive until later in the year, it’s not exactly clear what RIM’s co-CEO may or may not know.

According to an earlier BlackBerry Messenger rumor from BGR, the iOS app “won’t have all the features of its BlackBerry counterpart” since it’s deeply embedded into the BlackBerry OS to begin with. Apparently, RIM will bring BlackBerry Messenger to Android devices even sooner.

Could RIM finally be striking back? Or is this simply a case of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”? We’ll find out soon enough.

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(Image courtesy of 9to5Mac)