Market researcher Strategy Analytics says Samsung is expected to widen its lead over Apple in global smartphone sales this year with 35 per cent growth. Neil Mawston, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said in an email interview with Reuters he expected Samsung to slightly extend its lead over Apple this year because of its larger multitier product portfolio.

Apple has been out of ideas for a while now, and has a limited number of products with which to compete. Strategy Analytics said that Jobs’ Mob might roll out a smaller, cheaper "iPhone Mini" next year to grab market share back. However if it does this it could find itself standing against the ideas of its own religion, which suggest that you should charge an arm and a leg for a product. If Apple is forced to compete in the lower tier it will find that what you can do on Android on a budget is a lot better than what you can with a iOS.

Samsung is expected to sell 290 million smartphones this year, up from a projected 215 million in 2012, the research firm said. Apple's smartphone sales are projected to reach 180 million this year, up 33 per cent from last year, slightly trailing Samsung's 35 per cent increase. This will give Samsung a 33 per cent share of the 2013 smartphone market, up from last year's estimated 31 per cent, while Apple will hold 21 per cent. Then to make matters worse for Apple, Samsung may launch the Galaxy S IV in April, and the Galaxy Note III tablet and a series of other new smartphones.

"Samsung plays in more segments and this should enable it to capture more volume than," Mawston said.