In today’s episode of “As The Tablet Turns,” an anonymous designer claims that Apple is hoarding all of the 10.1” multi-touch LCD and OLED display panels from Asian suppliers.

AppleInsider is reporting that at least one product designer is having trouble getting 10.1” display panels from Asia because Apple has supposedly ordered so many screens that the parts are unavailable to anyone else. The report comes from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, where TG Daily spoke to the anonymous designer.

“We were designing a product for a customer and we needed 10-inch screens,” the source reportedly said. “We’ve been trying for months and can't get one from any of the Asian suppliers.” The designer then goes to claim that Apple “pre-ordered them all.”

Just two months ago, a report suggested that an OLED-based Apple tablet would cost between $1,500 and $1,700 just to build, based on current prices. That would put the final cost of such a tablet at about $2,000.

OLED (organic light-emitting diodes) are starting to be used frequently by Apple’s competitors, including Microsoft’s Zune HD and Google’s Nexus One “superphone.” OLED consumes less energy and provides a superior picture, but at a steeper price.

The current iPhone model uses LTPS LCD technology, which Oppenheimer analyst Yair Reiner believes is the more likely choice for an Apple tablet over OLED, based on his own checks of Apple’s supply chain.

Most analysts put the cost of Apple’s fabled tablet at less than $1,000, with Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster having already predicted that Cupertino will sell 1.4 million devices at an average selling price of $600 each.

The January 27 Apple event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco is fast approaching, where the rumored tablet is thought to be announced, with the device believed to go on sale in March.