In a time when the mobile industry is rocketing towards the increased necessity for devices to sport touchscreens, many mobile manufacturers are looking for ways to get into the market. According to Samsung, the South Korean mobile giant is already more than on its way.

The company claims that it has snagged a quarter of the global touchscreen smartphone market - with a massive 25 per cent of touchscreen smartphones sold worldwide being Samsung manufactured. This could be a result of Samsung's own user interface, TouchWIZ, which is notably widget-friendly and has a high usability.

This appeals to both experienced and inexperienced smartphone users, as tech-minded consumers can install plenty of apps and new users can get to grips with the handsets fairly quickly. The news comes at a time when touchscreen sales are booming, thanks to the popularity of Apple's iPhone 3G. Recently, Nokia launched its inaugural touchscreen smartphone, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic phone, and the industry has been littered with similar models from companies including Sony Ericsson and HTC.

Competition looks set to grow as companies strive to be among the first few to release a handset packing Google's Android operating system - the first venture into mobile from the Mountain View search engine. With the potential to help mobile manufacturers take on the mountainous iPhone, Android is a highly sought-after platform for manufacturers.

Last month, Barcelona's Mobile World Congress saw mobile makers pledge to roll out Android smartphones as early as Q1 this year, though none have as yet appeared on the market. However, HTC has revealed its second Android phone, which will follow the T-Mobile G1 - the HTC Magic. Samsung joins many other manufacturers that plan to work with Android in the future.