RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie told Bloomberg yesterday that RIM's BlackBerry tablet, the PlayBook, will sell for $499. The PlayBook was announced in late September in an effort to join the rapidly rising tablet market since the Apple iPad's launch in January really made it take off. Unlike the current generation iPad, however, the BlackBerry PlayBook features a front and rear-facing camera, an HDMI port, Adobe Flash, and a smaller seven inch display widescreen display.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is on par with iPad's starting price at $499 but while the iPad starts at 16GB, it's unknown what the storage will be in the PlayBook. Another competing tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, is $100 more at $599 but has 3G capabilities built in -- which also means you'll be receiving a monthly bill for data.

It seems like right now, RIM has been able to set a great price point for PlayBook, and we'll see how Apple retaliates with the highly anticipated iPad 2, due next year.