Research In Motion co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have handed over the reins to Thorsten Heins, a four-year veteran of the struggling maker of e-mail centric handheld BlackBerry devices. The two had been under pressure from investors to step aside for a variety of reasons, among them RIM’s major market-share losses to Apple and Android systems, and the failure of the Playbook, its attempt to enter the tablet market. Both men own more than 5 percent of the company’s shares and will remain on the board.
