Apple is famous for spending its vast cash reserves on “very strategic” components which usually makes competitors worry, and it seemed that they’ve done it once again. Few years ago, Apple thrown its cash towards Samsung, which makes NAND supplies dried up instantly in the market.

Today DigiTimes is reporting that Apple is occupying close to 60 percent of the global touch panel production capacity from the likes of Wintek and TPK resulting in “tight supply” for the competition. The impact on consumers, according DigiTimes’ sources at upstream component makers, is that tablet PC makers are unable to ship enough products to match orders due to component shortages.

This incident has particularly upset second-tier tablet manufacturers who must compete with the likes of HP, RIM, Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG, and Dell for the scraps. As a result, Apple should be able to more easily meet iPad demand in 2011, according to DigiTimes, while its competitors struggle to keep up.

Besides, according to a report published in the Korea Economic Daily earlier this week, Apple is expected to purchase some $7.8 billion worth of components from Samsung this year, including displays, applications processors, and NAND flash chips – all intended for use in their iPhones and iPads. If this deal is inked, Apple would become Samsung’s single biggest customer if the deal goes through, although the two obviously aren’t strangers to massive deals, like the previous NAND ‘sapu’ that Apple did.

SOURCE via CNET