Today is iPhone day, but maybe it's really BlackBerry day. Manufacturer Research in Motion had a summer of sadness. The company laid off a bunch of workers, debuted some lackluster phones, didn't have much success with the PlayBook and introduced a pretty weak music service. But there are glimmers of hope in the current news cycle. The company's stock is up 3.51 percent based on rumors that the company hired a banker to rehab the company, notes Business Insider. And while sales in the U.S. are plummeting -- the numbers dropped by half last quarter -- there are signs that they are well positioned to beat out the iPhone in another lucrative market: India.

"Nokia Oyj and Research In Motion Ltd. sell more devices in India, where smartphone shipments are forecast to grow almost 70 percent a year until 2015, helping mitigate their market-share losses in the U.S. and Europe," reports Businessweek's Young-Sam Cho. These developing nations don't have the capability to run iPhones. "Networks in India are just not conducive for Apple -- 3G networks aren't quite where they are in Western Europe and North America," Gus Papageorgiou, an analyst at Scotia Capital, told Cho. "RIM got the right product, the right timing, the right app." RIM has seen similar niche country success in England, which was rather unfortunately demonstrated by the London rioters who preferred BBM.  

Along with poor sales, the company has of late been battling a public perception problem. After the layoffs of thousands of workers, earlier this summer anonymous employees went public with what they consider the horrid working conditions at RIM, which tech blog Boy Genius Report posted. "While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone — the sentiment is widespread," an anonymous worker wrote. Apparently these incidents didn't hurt the company's cred too much. Canadians voted RIM the country's most attractive employer, reports Canada's Financial Post. "Randstad Canada, a provider of human-resources services, said RIM was ranked No. 1 for its work atmosphere, career advancement, training, management, salary and job content."

With all this good news to ride on, if Apple's phone announcement disappoints, as anticipated, the future could be a tad bit brighter for BlackBerrys. 

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