First off, the idea that apple is buying a bunch of screens is speculation. It hasn't been confirmed by anyone involved. It is imformed speculation. Apple talked about making an investment in supplier to insure adequate supplies at their last earnings call. So we have a publicly stated motivation.

Now you're attributing another motivation to them, and what are you basing this motive on? The secondary effect of constrained supplies? Aren't you just simply assuming that apple is doing this to keep competition out?

And isn't it obvious that actual competition-- companies that like apple saw the opportunity and spent years working on a tablet- aren't likely to need the same component?

And wouldn't any reduction in availability immediately cause all the non-apple suppliers to boost output?

Trying to corner the market on anything they can make more of is a foolish proposition.