Samsung's Galaxy S5, the next generation of its flagship smartphone, will be released by April and may include innovative eye-scanning technology.

An executive for the Korean tech giant confirmed to Bloomberg that the phone will hit stores this year on roughly the same time table as previous iterations of the device, which has emerged as the chief rival to Apple's iPhone.

The Galaxy S4 was announced last March and released in April.

Samsung executives have said the Galaxy S5 smartphone will hit stores by April.

Lee Young Hee, executive vice president for Samsung's mobile business, also told the news service that a new version of the company's Galaxy Gear smartwatch will be released at the same time as the new phone.

(Source: CNN)