RIM appears to be looking way ahead by filing a patent for merged capacitive and resistive touchscreens. As to how it works is anyones guess, but it will be interesting to find out.

From IntoMobile- “RIM has filed for a particularly imaginative patent that merges the responsiveness of a capacitive screen and the precision resistive touchscreens. The hybrid system, dubbed appropriately (and cryptically) “electronic device and touch screen display” is described as:

A touch screen display includes a display device, a resistive touch-sensitive overlay disposed on the display device and including a pair of touch-sensor layers separated by a gap, a resistive touch screen controller connected to each of the pair of touch-sensor layers for determining a position of a touch event on the touch-sensitive overlay and a capacitive controller connected to an outer one of the pair of touch-sensor layers for receiving input for determining changes resulting from capacitive coupling with the outer one of the pair of touch-sensor layers…”