It looks as if those rumours regarding a Samsung Galaxy S III no-show at Mobile World Congress were on the money after all. A memo has just popped into the Pocket-lint inbox from Samsung stating:

"The successor to the Galaxy S II smartphone will be unveiled at a separate Samsung-hosted event in the first half of the year, closer to commercial availability of the product."

In January The Verge cited our old pals "people familiar with the matter" as saying that Samsung had originally planned to announce the handset at MWC but had decided to delay the news. This statement from Samsung looks like being the official confirmation of that.

The Korean company will, of course, be over in Barcelona showing off some new toys but the long-awaited Galaxy S II sequel looks as if it will have to wait for another day.

The memo states that "Samsung is looking forward to introducing and demonstrating exciting new mobile products at Mobile World Congress 2012 and that it "stays committed to providing the best possible mobile experiences for customers around the world".

Good news and bad news then. The bad is obvious - the good is that at least we've confirmation for an announcement sometime before the end of June.