Apple and Google have made life tough for Research In Motion (RIM) – the proud maker of BlackBerry Smartphones.

I was going through the website of Flash Organisation Ltd., and busy checking business reviews of companies when the story about ‘BlackBerry’ came to my notice.

Lusterless innovations, bad decisions, delayed product launches and all took the toll on the co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie that have finally handed over the baton to Thorsten Heins.

One of the other Board Directors, Barbara Stymiest has been declared the new Chairman.

After a journey of more than 25 years, the founder of RIM (Mike Lazaridis) will now be the Vice Chairman, though Jim Balsillie will continue in the board without any functional role.

Thorsten Heins had joined RIM in 2007, after serving Siemens Communications. It was a quick jump for him from Chief Operating Officer (August 2011) to the new tag of Chief Executive Officer, of Research In Motion.

After poor performances in the market (PlayBook tablet and others), loss of market share and amid other market ambiguities, it won’t be VERY easy for Thorsten Heins to get over things.

After Hewlett-Packard, it is now RIM; the CEOs everywhere it seems may find it hard to save their CHAIRS if not backed by good overall performance!