When the Apple iPhone was first launched, there was no application that allowed inter-iPhone-messaging. Then came Ping! which stirred up the community somewhat, but was not wildly accepted. Then came WhatsApp that was heaps better and received widespread acceptance.

Today, it is hailed as one of the first apps an iPhone user MUST install, as it allows you to message your friends for free. As their tagline goes, “SMS is so 2008″.

However, WhatsApp was limited to just the iPhone and that was rather, errr… limiting? But not anymore. It has now arrived in the BlackBerry App World and it will surely capture a significant portion of BlackBerry users, and quickly. I’m predicting my list of numbers in WhatsApp will rapidly double.

The app costs USD$2.99 and you can get it from here.

Preliminary comments that have been posted for the BlackBerry version are not very favorable, but hang in there, every alpha or beta release will have a few niggling bugs. Most comments state that it has a horrible UI, but I’m sure you can rest assured they will be fixing it soon. The first version for the iPhone was rather basic too, but today, you can even send photos and videos to your friends via WhatsApp.

And finally, no, I am not a shareholder of this software, but a totally unbiased reviewer of WhatsApp!