Samsung may be working on a cheaper Galaxy Note II

Samsung's Galaxy Note smartphones are among the hottest selling devices in recent times, and it appears that the South Korean manufacturer has no intention of letting the competition steal even a tiny bit of its phablet market share. Samsung may be preparing a budget-friendly version of the Galaxy Note II to appeal to a broader audience, according to a report by SamMobile.

The report states that Samsung is aiming to push large screen handsets to the masses and that the cheaper version of the Galaxy Note II will not have the S-Pen functionality and the Super AMOLED display used on the full-fledged version.

There isn't much more information available right now, but SamMobile cites sources as stating this handset will be launched to target audiences in Europe. However, since the Galaxy Note was hugely successful in India, we suspect this lower-end version could make its way here as well.

A cheaper model may be launched, but without the S-Pen.

It was reported last month that global sales of the Galaxy Note II had exceeded 5 million units. In early November, Samsung announced that the 5.5-inch smartphone was selling at three times the pace of the original Note. 10 million units of the Galaxy Note have been sold across the globe since it was launched. To know more about the Galaxy Note II, read our review.

The Samsung Galaxy Note II has most of the specifications and features that are common in high-end smartphones these days, but Samsung has thrown in a new feature that can potentially change the way mobile phones are used. Apart from the fact that it features Android v4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box and is powered by a 1.6 GHz quad-core processor, the major talking point about the Galaxy Note II is that it features the all-new Air View feature.

Here is a quick look at the specifications of the Galaxy Note II:

• 5.5-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels
• 4G LTE, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi HT40, NFC
• GPS with GLONASS and A-GPS support
• Bluetooth v4.0 with USB 2.0 Host
• 8 megapixel AF/ Touchfocus camera, 1.9MP VT Camera, BSI front-facing camera
• 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB versions, all with expandable support up to 64 GB
• 2 GB RAM
• MHL for AV out

Samsung currently sits at pole position as the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. The Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II are two of the company's hottest selling devices this year, which has made its smartphone sales look good. A recent report by Yonhap, a financial analysis company, estimates that Samsung will have a good fourth quarter, and will sell over 60 million smartphones. The report cited an investment bank as saying that Samsung's smartphone shipments are likely to exceed 60 million units in the fourth quarter of this year, proving its prowess in the world's mobile phone market, despite its ongoing patent war with Apple.

If Samsung does launch a budget Note II, it's likely to continue dominating the smartphone market in 2013 as well.