iPhone 5 to be targeted by Samsung

Samsung is sharpening the knives for a carefully timed raid on the iPhone 5. Sources say the Korean company is saving a legal challenge until Apple announces its next-generation smart phone -- potentially killing the entire launch of the iPhone 5.

Samsung will aim for a total ban on the new iPhone, the Korea Times reports. The two companies are locked in a ferocious legal dustup, Apple claiming Galaxy smart phones and tablets rip off the iPhone and iPad, right down to the box they come in, and Samsung countering that Apple has infringed on its patents.

Reports say Samsung is sitting on patents it can argue Apple is breaching, and it will wait until the iPhone 5 is announced before invoking them in court. That would be neat symmetry, as Apple launched a similar claim that banjaxed the launch of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

The 10.1 went on sale here in the UK for less than a week before it was banned across Europe. The tablet never even reached the shops in other countries, including Australia.

Even more embarrassingly, the Galaxy Tab 7.7 was yanked from under the noses of the great and the good of the technology world when it was banned from recent trade show IFA, ruining what was supposed to be the slate's big debut. No wonder Samsung is vexed.

Meanwhile, analysts at JP Morgan have added to the chorus of voices predicting there will be not one iPhone, but two. The full-fat iPhone 5 is expected to boast the A5 processor seen in the iPad 2, or a more powerful A6 chip, and 8-megapixel camera. The diet version, possibly called the iPhone 4S, is said to be cheaper, perhaps aimed at developing markets such as China.

Analysts have also scotched rumours of a new iPad 3 arriving this year.