According to analysts, it appears highly unlikely that the new Research in Motion (RIM) CEO Thorsten Heins will not be able to bring about such widespread across-the-board changes to the company that its market-share losses can be stemmed effectively.

Heins, 54, recently took over the reins of the struggling BlackBerry maker after the resignation of the company’s co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. His appointment comes at a time when sweeping changes are being expected from RIM such that the company can, once again, move in the direction of profits.

Balsillie and Lazaridis have been criticized widely after RIM’s market share, as per ComScore statistics, fell 16.6 percent in the three months ended in November; while the share of its rivals Apple and Google increased 28.7 percent and 46.9 percent respectively.

Noting that the value of RIM shares has plunged a whopping 75 percent over the last one year or so, Needham & Co analyst Charlie Wolf said that the change of leadership at RIM appears to be “largely cosmetic.” Wolf added that RIM was under immense pressure to appoint a new CEO, especially since Balsillie and Lazaridis were too reluctant to go in for a revamp to turn around the company’s fortunes.

Expressing a similar opinion and adding that, going by the precedence, the recovery of original equipment manufacturers has largely been made after the appointment of an ‘outsider,’ Charter Equity Research’s analyst Edward Synder said: “There has never been a successful turnaround of a handset OEM without a wholesale change in management.”