If you don’t know by now, RIM finally ‘shook up’ its leadership by appointing Thorsten Heins as the new CEO of RIM. Former co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie will remain at the company but in new positions. But RIM needs more than this new appointment to win in 2012. Here’s why.

You’re probably asking, “Who the heck is Thorsten Heins?”Good question. Heins has been a key player at RIM since he was hired away from Siemens AG in December 2007. He is an industry vet with 27 years of wireless expertise and comprises half of RIM’s co-COO’s team. (RIM apparently had an affinity for dual-wielding C-level executives.) But that’s all in the past now. Mike Lazaridis will become “vice chair” of RIM’s board while Jim Balsillie “remains a member of the board.” Heins was “unanimously named” the new president and CEO of RIM, and subsequently also appointed to RIM’s board.

But what will Heins bring to RIM that wasn’t already there? His name hasn’t exactly lit up the radar and his vision for RIM is far from inspiring. Here’s his official statement on the future of RIM:

“Mike and Jim took a bold step 18 months ago when RIM purchased QNX to shepherd the transformation of the BlackBerry platform for the next decade. We are more confident than ever that was the right path. It is Mike and Jim’s continued unwillingness to sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain which has made RIM the great company that it is today. I share that philosophy and am very excited about the company’s future.”

Heins added that PlayBook 2.0 and BlackBerry 10 had an “encouraging” reception at CES 2012 and that RIM’s financial outlook looks rosy. RIM also plans to appoint a new chief marketing officer to help with product sales. “[We] will continue to focus both on short-term and long-term growth, strategic planning, a customer- and market-based product approach, and flawless execution.”

But that strategy may come up short. An internal CEO hire with the old CEOs still holding high positions doesn’t sound like a shakeup, nor does it get consumers excited for something new. It failed to even get the stock market excited. At the time of this writing, RIM’s stock dropped nearly 8.5 percent by the closing bell, bottoming out after hours at $15.55 a share. There’s no new vision, no new plan. It’s more or less business as usual, but with someone else.

AppleInsider.com chatted up Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, who offered up his view on the appointment. According to AppleInsider.com:

Abramsky noted that Heins did not indicate how he intends to address RIM’s challenges in the consumer market, although the [investor conference call] was kept short. He believes that the “entrenched stance” shown by Heins could disappoint some investors who were hoping to see more drastic changes at RIM. Separately, Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company said he believes the changes at RIM are “more cosmetic than substantive.”

Hardly a rousing endorsement of RIM’s moves. If RIM fails to inspire, excite or, at the very least, intrigue consumers and businesses about its new products at Mobile World Congress 2012, the company is doomed to end up like Palm. I think the period of time for RIM to reinvent itself has passed and the next product launch will quite literally be RIM’s last stand. It’s all or nothing, and unfortunately, the collective sentiment around the Internet seems to reflect this, too. I’m pulling for RIM to pull up out of this nosedive, but we’ll just have to wait.

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