Samsung shows no signs of slowing down in its quest to be smartphone king. The company will announce the Samsung Galaxy S4 on March 14 and a Samsung official told The Korea Times Wednesday March 6 that Samsung will launch a 5.9-inch smartphone this year. That smartphone will almost certainly be the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

Samsung can be credited with creating the phablet category of smartphones when it launched the Samsung Galaxy Note in October 2011. Since then, many smartphone makers have entered the category but none has seen the success of Samsung. Samsung followed up on the success of the original Galaxy Note with the Galaxy Note 2, and the company has already sold over 10 million units since its release in September 2012.

With rumors of Apple possibly entering the phablet market, Samsung is not taking any chances with its offering of the Galaxy Note 3. A Samsung official spoke to The Korean Times on condition of anonymity that:

The 5.9-inch OLED (organic light-emitting diode) is a departure from the Galaxy Note 2's 5.55-inch screen. Samsung knows that consumers like smartphones with larger screens, so the company is going even bigger with the Galaxy Note 3. Get ready to see more and more people holding almost-6-inch smartphones up to their ears.

The official also told the publication that Samsung will be using its in-house Exynos octa-core processor in the smartphone. The eight-core processor will allow the smartphone to handle processor-intensive tasks such as games, multimedia, multitasking and more, while also using the chip's power-saving features to provide longer battery life.

The source also said that Samsung expects to see a rapid rise in its phablet business, which will keep the company ahead of its rivals, especially Apple. There have been rumors that Apple will enter this new category of smartphone sometime this year or in 2014. Whenever Apple does enter, Samsung is waiting and ready.