Barring unlikely force majeure, Apple's new iPhone will definitely hit the global market this late September, prompting the tech giant's closest rival, Samsung, to welcome the handset debut accordingly - with lawsuits.

The Korea Times, citing an industry source, reported on Monday that Samsung is preparing legal actions against the iPhone 5. The new patent lawsuit follows confirmation that the gadget will be deployed with long-term evolution (LTE) connectivity, certain patents of which have been claimed by the South Korean firm as its exclusive intellectual properties.

"It's true that Samsung Electronics has decided to take immediate legal action against the Cupertino-based Apple," the Korean publication reported its source as saying.

It is likely that the impending legal suits will be waged in key markets of Europe and the United States, with the source affirming that "countries in Europe and even the United States ... are our primary targets."

The same report also raised the possibility that Samsung will be successful this time around after its dismal defeat in the U.S. court on August, which left the firm with more than $US1 billion court payment obligation and the prospect that some of its flagship devices could be banned from the U.S. market.

"The story is totally different when you talk about LTE patents. These are new and highly-valued," The Korea Times quoted another source as saying.

The two industry titans have been engaged in a bitter battle that so far saw them undercutting each other's gains in different fronts, with Apple snatching the edge in legal contest and the tablet market competition.

Samsung, on other hand, has been the world's most dominant smartphone maker in the three of the past four quarters ending in June 2012. It is likely to keep its crown by third quarter this year following its announcement last week that the Galaxy S3 alone sold over 20 million units over the last 100 days.

Yet analysts have been projecting that the smartphone landscape would radically shift anew in favour of Apple by the end of the current year. Estimates indicate that the latest iPhone version could easily attract some 50 million buys within the lucrative holiday season that runs from November 2012 through January next year.

It is not far-fetched that the new Apple gadget would deliver around $30 billion in revenues to the tech firm by December, according to NineMSN.com, basing on previous sales model that were seen in the earlier iPhone debuts.

Industry analyst Piper Jaffrey has earlier forecasted that if indeed the new iPhone will arrive by the last week of September, the tech toy will likely lure as much as 10 million buyers prior to the close of that month.

That would easily set off, analysts said, what would appear as another record period for Apple and in the process another round smouldering grudge between the U.S. firm and its main Asian competitor, Samsung.