Samsung on Wednesday released the newest version of its oversized
smartphone Galaxy Note in South Korea, just a week after Apple's iPhone 5
hit shelves, in an apparent bid to outpace its rival with a wider range
of gadgets.
The South Korean electronics giant said the Galaxy Note
II first unveiled at a trade fair in Berlin last month will eventually
hit stores in 128 nations including the United States, where the firm's
recently lost a $1.05 billion patent case to Apple.
The gadget is
slightly bigger than the firm's flagship smartphone Galaxy S series and
comes with a stylus "S pen" to write notes or draw on the screen.
"We
believe global sales of Galaxy Note II for the first three months will
be more than three times those of the previous version," J.K. Shin, the
head of Samsung Electronics' mobile unit, told reporters.
The
world's top smartphone maker has sold more than 10 million units of the
first Galaxy Note since its debut in November and more than 20 million
of the latest Galaxy S III, which was launched in late May.
"It
took us some time to establish this new product category in the global
market... but now we get far better response than the past," Shin said.
The
launch comes after a flurry of new devices from major phone makers
including Apple, whose iPhone 5 just days ago enjoyed a record launch
weekend with sales topping five million.
Samsung's smaller rival
LG Electronics last week put on sale the new version of its headline
Optimus G, hopes it will help the world's number five phonemaker meet
its goal to sell 80 million mobile phones this year.
Galaxy Note
II -- powered by Google's Android software -- is equipped with a new 1.6
GHz quad-core processor that helps run multiple applications faster
than the dual-core processor of the previous version.
About 15.1
centimetres long (5.9 inches), 8 centimetres wide, 9.4 millimetres thin
and featuring a 5.5-inch touchscreen, it allows users to split the
screen in half to view two programmes at once.
"You can exchange
chat messages or take part in a video conference while checking e-mails,
or take notes while watching a video speech by famous speakers," said
Shin.
Samsung has been embroiled in a long-running patent battle
with Apple in 10 countries, including the United States and Germany,
with the two rivals accusing each other of stealing design and
technology.
Last month the South Korean firm was ordered to pay
Apple $1.05 billion in damages for illegally copying iPhone and iPad
features for its Galaxy S smartphones.