Report: New Samsung Galaxy S4 Smartphone on the Way?

Samsung plans to blunt some of the impact of Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone 5 with a new Galaxy S4 introduced next February at the Mobile World Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain, according to a report in The Korea Times and other accounts.

The Korean Times report, which quotes parts suppliers and anonymous company officials, also said that Samsung is working with U.S. carriers to help work around any design issues that could spark another round of patent infringement charges from Apple. The new smartphone will go on sale worldwide in March at the latest, according to the report, some nine to 10 months after Samsung rolled out its highly popular Galaxy S III.

“Samsung is ready to unveil the next Galaxy smartphone, the Galaxy S4, at early next year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) in the Spanish city of Barcelona,” said an unnamed Samsung official.

According to the report, the Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android-based Galaxy S4 will use LTE networks, feature Samsung’s Exynos-branded application processors and quad-core chips, with a screen size approaching 5 inches and an OLED display, although the manufacturer has yet to decide to use flexible display technology.

In a separate legal action following its $1.05 billion intellectual property win over Samsung in late August, Apple claimed that 21 Samsung devices, including smartphones, media players and tablets selling on the market as of August 2011, copied its technology. On that list is the Galaxy S III smartphone and the Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet and the Galaxy S II.

Prior to Apple’s unveiling last week of the iPhone 5, Samsung’s Galaxy S III has been cleaning up the smartphone market, posting sales of more than 20 million units in three months with projections to sell another 10 million devices by year’s end, according to the company, while dusting Apple in the process.

However, Samsung’s big numbers for the Galaxy S III have been achieved against Apple’s older iPhone 4S, of course, so with the competition now with the iPhone 5, more sobering data on unit sales should emerge. Still, Samsung’s position as the iPhone’s primary challenger, among a horde of competitors, obviously isn’t temporary or fleeting. It’s apparent that the company doesn’t think so either by announcing the Galaxy S4 right in the wake of the iPhone 5 hoopla.

Samsung also plans to parry Apple’s court victory by upping the price Apple pays for the mobile processors it makes at an Austin, Texas, plant, according to the Korean Times report. A Samsung official is quoted as saying, “the release of the S4 means more market share for Samsung as it is the only firm that can guarantee on-time delivery, output commitment and better pricing for mobile application processors.’’