BlackBerry’s bosses resign

Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie

Responding to pressure from investors, Research In Motion’s joint chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie have resigned.

Former chief operating officer Thorsten Heins takes over the top job at the struggling BlackBerry maker. In a conference call on Monday, Heins said he would focus on a consumer push and a smooth delivery of its products, rather than allowing a churn of innovation to disrupt rollout, as in the past.

“We innovated while we were developing the product and that needs to stop,” Heins said. “We need to innovate, don’t get me wrong, but … when we say a product is defined and a product is a product, execution has to be really, really precise.”

Still, he hinted he would stick to the current strategy, saying the company needed scaling up, not a dramatic transformation.

Lazaridis and Balsillie stressed this is an orderly transition in a long-agreed succession plan, not a retreat in the face of a plummeting share price, shrinking market share and criticism of its products, but takeover talk continues to swirl around RIM .

Heins is a former Siemens executive who has risen steadily through RIM’s upper management ranks since joining the Canadian company in late 2007.