Queues for new Samsung Galaxy S3 handset

Samsung launched its new Galaxy handset yesterday, leading to the kind of queues usually only reserved for a new Apple product.

The previous Galaxy helped Samsung topple Apple as the world's biggest smartphone maker, with sales of 20 million handsets worldwide, and it hopes the S3 will be just as popular.

The launch of the latest Galaxy, which tracks the user's eye movements to stop the screen from hibernating when the phone is in use, saw queues form across the 28 European and Middle Eastern countries it went on sale at yesterday.

Retailers in Britain have already warned of stock shortages.

Samsung sold 44.5 million smartphones between January and March, equivalent to nearly 21,000 per hour, giving it a 30 per cent market share.