Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday that it would launch a new smartphone running Google's latest version of the Android operating system globally starting in Europe in November, as it is locked in a battle for smartphone supremacy with Apple Inc..

Samsung and Google unveiled the Galaxy Nexus phone at an event in Hong Kong on Wednesday, after delaying the event while the world paid tribute to late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

Samsung, the top seller of Android phones and the biggest challenger to Apple, said the latest version of Android, named Ice Cream Sandwich, was designed to unite tablet and smartphone platforms, potentially attracting more application developers and consumers to the Android camp.

The South Korean firm's new device, which touts a 4.65-inch high-definition super AM-OLED display and a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor, features such new functions as face recognition.

The world's No.2 handset maker said it also plans to introduce a version of the Galaxy Nexus that runs on faster Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks.

Samsung's event came less than a day after Apple reported quarterly results that missed expectations for the first time in years, blaming rumors of the new iPhone for hurting demand in the September quarter.

Apple and Samsung have been locked in an acrimonious legal dispute in 10 countries involving smartphones and tablet computers as they jostle for the top spot in the fast-growing markets. Apple is also Samsung's biggest customer, buying mainly chips and displays.

Samsung said on Monday that the sales of its Galaxy S and Galaxy S 2 smartphones topped 30 million units, with the once-smartphone laggard expected to overtake Apple as the world's biggest smartphone vendor in the third quarter.

Strong smartphone sales are expected to help Samsung's handset division report a record profit during the period, analysts said.

(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner.)

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