South Korean firm brings hostilities to iPhone maker's home shores by debuting its latest smartphone in New York

The launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4 on Thursday marks the latest skirmish in the longrunning and often bitter battle between the South Korean firm and Apple for supremacy in the smartphone market.

The launch event is seen as Samsung bringing the fight to Apple's home market, with a rumoured production run of 100m S4 handsets. Apple and Samsung account for one in two mobile phones sold.

Worldwide, Samsung dominates the smartphone market, with analysts estimating that it shipped 63.7m smartphones in the fourth quarter of last year. But Apple remains the market leader in the US with ComScore, which tracks phone ownership, calculating that there were 48.9m iPhones in use in the US by January 2013, compared with 27.7m Samsung smartphones.

The number of iPhone users grew more than Android – including Samsung – users in the US last year – by 19m to 48.9m, compared with a rise of 18.5m to 67.7m respectively, with consumers buying almost half a million more Apple handsets in December compared with Android. The higher growth in Apple sales is attributed to the launch of the highly-anticipated iPhone 5 last October.

But industry analysts believe the Galaxy S4 could change the situation, with some suggesting Android users have been waiting for the phone's launch to buy a new handset.

Apple is still bristling from a setback in its mobile patents battle with Samsung.

Earlier this month, a US judge slashed a $1.05bn (£698m) award by more than 40% ($450m) and ordered a new trial to decide how much – if any – damages Samsung should pay for infringements by 14 handsets and tablets. Both companies rely on each other for components and business.