Samsung: February 2013 Galaxy S4 rumors "not true"

Samsung has denied reports that the Galaxy S4 is set to launch in February 2013, describing the chatter of a 5-inch follow-up to the Galaxy S III as simply "not true." Talk of a new flagship with an aggressive roll-out roadmap began earlier this week, with claims that Samsung execs themselves had confirmed the mid-Q1 2013 reveal in an attempt to keep the pressure up on the new iPhone 5. However, the Samsung Tomorrow Twitter account quickly moved to debunk the speculation.

The company didn't give more than a few passing comments on the talk, but closed with the somewhat comical "why spread these rumors?" (translated). Even if the rumors were in fact true, however, we wouldn't be surprised if Samsung had decided to try to close them down anyway; the promise of a new device in a few months time would be unlikely to help sales of the existing Galaxy S III.

Those sales have been particularly healthy, in fact, and Samsung would probably do anything it could to avoid deflating demand before it wanes of its own accord. The company sold 20m Galaxy S III units in the first 100 days of availability, smashing records previously set by the Galaxy S II.

According to the leaks, Samsung's fourth-gen Galaxy S flagship is to use a 5-inch display and potentially a flexible Super AMOLED panel of Samsung Display's own manufacture. However, production issues might scupper those intentions, the insiders warned. Samsung was also tipped to eschew Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipsets altogether, relying solely on its own Exynos processors.