Touchscreen devices are vital to Apple's plan for world domination, so naturally it'd try to secure as many touchscreen panels as possible. According to DigiTimes, Apple's such a hog on the glass that RIM was unable to get enough to produce sufficient amounts of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Digitimes reports that Apple's tight grip on touchscreen panels effectively forced RIM to push the PlayBook's release till later this month on April 19. As we've said countless times, the PlayBook is a fine example of a tablet done right. It doesn't necessarily have to "beat" the iPad, it just needs to excel on its own merits — something Motorola's Xoom has failed to do.

Squeezing RIM out of the tablet picture for a whole month just shows how big Apple's wrath has become. Apple's footprint is so large that it's crushing the competition at the supplies level! It doesn't even need the fastest tablet or the best one, it just needs to buy up all the touchscreens to screw everyone else from making touchscreen devices.

DigiTimes, via BGR