Samsung's Galaxy S4 will be a no-show at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, a new report said, but the South Korean will remain an active participant in the annual tech event, showing off other gadget products.

Citing sources it described as privy to Samsung's mobile division plans, tech blog site Pocket Lint confirmed that the company will skip out on its usual news briefing for the 2013 MWC, seen by tech experts as the likely platform for the much-awaited preview of the Galaxy S4.

"The company won't in fact, we've been told, be holding any official unveiling event in Barcelona, but will have a presence on the show floor," Pocket Lint's Stuart Miles said in his report.

Somehow, the report followed through on earlier suggestions that the Galaxy S4, now widely regarded as the main rival of Apple's iPhone 5, will hit global markets using an event that Samsung has especially arranged for its flagship smartphone.

Blog reports picked up 'solid hints' that pointed to the staging of Samsung Unpacked, tentatively scheduled for March 22 and to be followed by the S4's official release on April 15, a month earlier than the Galaxy S3 2012 debut.

Pocket Lint noted too that with the 'Samsung pull out', this year's MWC gadget showcase stands to lose major attractions following HTC's confirmation that it hold a major press conference ahead of the trade show in Spain.

That would mean HTC's rumoured high-end smartphone, the M7, will be introduced to global consumers outside of MWC. Per the Taiwanese firm, press events for its new products will be held on Feb 19 in London and New York.

Samsung's change of plan is read by analysts as the company's way of giving the deserved emphasis for the Galaxy S4, which will replace the Galaxy S3.

The S3, along with the Galaxy Note 2, played pivotal roles that allowed Samsung to clock sales of more than 60 million Galaxy handsets in Q4 2012, also realising for the tech giant profits of over $US7 billion in the consumer electronics segment alone.

With rumoured features of a 4.99-inch 1080P Super AMOLED Full HD display, a quad-core 1.8GHz Exynos Octa processor and a 13MP main camera shooter, Samsung's Galaxy S4 is expected to sustain the incredible run of the Galaxy S series smartphones.

To date, over 100 million units of Galaxy S devices have been sold worldwide, Samsung said, with both the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy S3 each registering sales of more than 40 million units.