Samsung is planning to launch its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, in April, alongside an evolution of the Galaxy Gear smart watch.

Lee Young Hee, executive vice president of the company’s mobile business, revealed the company’s plans in an interview with Bloomberg, in which he added that the company is looking to incorporate eye scanner technology in its high-end smartphones in the future.

Lee would not be drawn on whether eye scanning would feature on the Galaxy S5, but promised that the next version of the Galaxy Gear will have “more advanced functions” and improve on the bulky design of its predecessor.

The company’s current flagship, the Galaxy S4 (pictured), was unveiled in March last year and quickly established itself as Samsung’s fastest-ever selling smartphone, hitting 10 million sales by May, less than a month after its commercial launched.

However, it is believed sales of the Galaxy S4 slowed following Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 5C and 5S in September, the latter of which features fingerprint identity technology.

The Galaxy Gear was unveiled at IFA in Berlin in September last year. In November, Samsung reportedly said it had sold 800,000 of its Galaxy Gear smart watches in the first two months of availability.

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun Hee last week responded to investor concerns by urging his company to adopt new ways of thinking and to reduce its focus on hardware.

In a statement reported by The Wall Street Journal, Lee said the company must “get rid of business models and strategies from five, ten years ago and hardware-focused ways” and that research and development “should work around the clock”.

Samsung’s fourth quarter results, announced this week, missed analyst estimates, with operating profit lower than the prior quarter and same period in 2012.