Research in Motion (RIM) has announced a bit of positive news ahead of the company’s expected quarterly earnings report on Thursday in the form of an increase in the number of BlackBerry subscribers.

The news, announced yesterday by RIM CEO Thorston Heins, revealed that BlackBerry managed to increase its subscriber base from 78 million to 80 million over the current quarter. Emerging markets seem to be driving the company’s growth but unfortunately those gains on focused on lower-end handsets than BlackBerry would like.

Heins also reported that there has been a very positive reaction to the BlackBerry 10 devices from (presumably American) carriers, saying “We are making believers out of our partners. We are making believers out of those who had previously written BlackBerry off.”

As a result of the news that the company’s subscriber base increased BlackBerry’s NASDAQ stock closed 5% higher yesterday at $6.60. However RIM is still expected to announce a loss in tomorrow’s earnings report.

Source: Business Insider and AllThingsD