Research in Motion has made a lot of headlines today, but instead of more doom and gloom for the embattled smartphone manufacturer, today’s news actually has a rather positive spin for once.

The biggest story in the news today is that Blackberry is planning a comeback – and when we say ‘plan’, we really do mean they have a blueprint to re-establish themselves as a player in the smartphone market. Yesterday’s leak of a document allegedly showing plans for the much vaunted Blackberry 10 contained quite a few surprises, not least the fact that RIM is planning on releasing not one, but two BB10 phones early next year.

The launch of BB10, which was originally billed for this fall, was recently delayed , and it now appears as if the OS will make its first appearance in January of next year. Europe will be the first to get BB10, with the US release of RIM’s new operating system and phones coming three to four weeks later, most likely in early February. This demonstrates that RIM has their thinking caps on, for overseas markets have generally always been more receptive to Blackberry devices compared to consumers in the States.

RIM’s plans include both a touchscreen phone, codenamed “London”, and also “Nevada”, a BB10 phone featuring the brand’s iconic QWERTY keyboard. What’s even more intriguing however, is the presence of two further code names on the document – “Naples” and “Nashville”, of which no further clues are given as to what they might be.

The document also gives away RIM’s planned release of a 10-inch tablet device, codenamed “Blackforest”, which is due to turn up sometime in the summer of 2013. It’s likely that this will be an upgrade on the current Blackberry PlayBook, running the latest BB10 software.

All of this could simply be a smokescreen for an even more radical development in the pipeline however. Reports last week suggest that RIM could actually be about to partner with Microsoft instead, in a similar strategy to Finnish firm Nokia, adopting the Windows 8 operating system on its phones and abandoning BB10 altogether.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is believed to have approached RIM to suggest a partnership between the two companies in a deal that would also see Microsoft buy a stake in those Blackberry devices that adopt the Windows OS.

This would be a very interesting development, although it’s likely that nothing concrete is being planned yet, at least not in light of today’s statements by RIM CEO Thorsten Heins.

In a carefully worded press release, Heins remained bullish about Blackberry’s prospects, claiming that “there’s nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now,” and that it will be “a very strong player” in the smartphone market for many years to come.

Heins explained rather optimistically that he saw RIM as being in a period of transition, and that with the release of BB10 next year, they would be able to “empower people as never before”, connecting people not just with each other, but with everything “from parking meters and car computers to credit card machines and ticket counters.”

Given those statements, it would appear more likely that the Canadian firm sees any link-up with Microsoft as a back-up plan, should Hein’s vision fail to materialize.