But how?

To stimulate growth, the ECB has already cut its benchmark interest rate to a record low, reducing borrowing costs for business and consumers in the 17 European Union countries that use the euro.

The ECB has also given banks more than 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) in cheap, three-year loans to help mitigate the effects of Europe's financial crisis. And it offered to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds to boost investors' confidence that no countries would default on their debts. No bonds have been bought, but the mere offer has significantly lowered borrowing costs for heavily indebted countries such as Italy and Spain.

But these steps have not pulled Europe out of its economic funk. The eurozone economy has contracted for six straight quarters. The economy shrank by 1 percent in the first quarter over the same quarter a year ago. Unemployment is at 12.2 percent the highest since the euro alliance was created in 1999.

Markets may get a clearer idea of further measures the ECB is considering after its monthly rate-setting meeting on Thursday. Last month, the 23-member governing council cut its benchmark refinancing rate a quarter-point to a record low of 0.5 percent. Most economists do not expect a rate cut Thursday, but many think the ECB will eventually cut rates or take other steps if the economy doesn't start growing.

Carsten Brzeski at ING said the bank might take a "timeout" but that the "environment still looks too fragile and uncertain for the ECB to take a back seat."

Speaking to reporters after last month's rate-setting meeting, ECB President Mario Draghi said the ECB stood "ready to act if needed" to give the eurozone a further boost.

Yet economists and even top bank officials say lower rates alone won't help much. The ECB's refinancing rate sets the cost of the loans it makes to banks and influences many borrowing rates across the economy. Problem is, the low ECB benchmark rate is not being passed on by the banks in the countries hardest hit by the debt crisis, such as Spain and Italy. Banks remain risk-averse in the aftermath of the financial crisis and new rules limit how much they can lend relative to how much capital they have. Some banks are having trouble borrowing themselves. So credit is hard to come by and worst hit are small businesses.

The ECB is looking hard for a new way to boost a rough economy. To find one, it may have to pursue unorthodox and possibly risky methods.

Here is a look at what the ECB might try:

MORE CREDIT TO BANKS: When banks borrow from the ECB, they must put up collateral, usually bonds, in the event of a default. But the loans can be far smaller than the value of the bonds. This ensures the ECB will get its money back but means less credit for the banks. To give the banks greater financial firepower, the ECB could loosen its loan requirements so that banks can borrow more for every euro of collateral they put up.

GO NEGATIVE: Draghi has said the ECB has examined charging banks to maintain deposits at the bank by paying a negative interest rate. Banks park billions in cash at the ECB as a safe short-term home for money that isn't being invested or loaned. The bank already cut the deposit rate to zero from 0.25 percent in December. Draghi said after the ECB's May 2 policy meeting that a negative rate is not out of the question.

A negative rate could spur banks to lend that money instead of stashing it. Still, several top ECB officials and economists have been skeptical. For one thing, negative rates could dent bank profits just as they're rebuilding their finances. And banks could simply pass on the costs to customers in higher lending rates the opposite of what the ECB wants.

SMALL BUSINESS RESCUE: To encourage banks to lend more to small businesses, the ECB is talking with other European officials about the possibility of having a government body guarantee these loans, much the way that Fannie Mae guarantees mortgage loans in the U.S.

Banks can bundle their small business loans into bonds just like they do with mortgages. These bonds are sold to investors, who collect the interest payments and take on the risk of defaults. Banks can use the proceeds from these sales to lend more to businesses.

One way to increase this activity would be for a government entity to guarantee the small-business loans. That would increase investor confidence in the bonds.

The ECB is encouraging a discussion of this idea, but it would not be the entity to back these loans. That could fall to the European Investment Bank, which is run by the European Union and already makes loans to small businesses.

Martin Hellmich, a professor of financial risk management at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management, said having a European authority backing the bonds was crucial to this method's success.

"The guarantee is a very important factor here," he said.

LOOK AHEAD: One way the ECB can encourage investors, businesses and consumers to spend and invest more is to give a clearer indication of what it is planning for the long term. For example, the ECB could say that it plans to keep rates low for a specified time just as the U.S. Federal Reserve has done. All the ECB has said so far is that rates will stay down "for as long as needed."

In theory, the ECB could also join the Fed, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan in large-scale purchases of government bonds. By buying up bonds from the banks, the amount of money in circulation would increase and help drive down long-term interest rates and spur borrowing, spending and investing. Such an across-the-board program, known as quantitative easing, would be different from the current bond purchase program the ECB is offering, which is aimed at individual countries that agree to take steps to cut debt, and hasn't been activated.

But analysts say it's unlikely the ECB will do quantitative easing, for technical, legal and political reasons.

Draghi has said it would be difficult to find one long-term rate to target, since euro countries' bond markets are all different.

The move would also face strong opposition in Germany, where the head of the central bank has warned such purchases get the central bank involved in bailing out government finances something that it's forbidden to do. Creating new money can also drive up inflation, a concern that is especially strong in Germany and a potential conflict with the ECB's charter, which charges it to contain inflation.

Additionally, Draghi had enough trouble last year winning approval for the bond-purchase offer. Trying to launch another bond program could upset that hard-won consensus.

DUBLIN, Ohio (Reuters) - Tiger Woods ended a largely forgettable week at the Memorial Tournament languishing joint 65th in a field of 73, and conceding that he needs to clean up every aspect of his game before the upcoming U.S. Open.

A five-times winner at Muirfield Village Golf Club where he was the defending champion, Woods struggled with his putting on lightning-fast greens for all four rounds as he finished up a distant 20 strokes behind winner Matt Kuchar.

Though his accuracy off the tee was surprisingly good throughout the tournament, Woods totaled 119 putts during the week and paid a hefty price after running up big numbers on certain holes at a venue he knows as well as anyone.

"It happens," Woods told reporters after closing with a level-par 72 at Muirfield Village to finish at eight-over 296, the second-highest score of his career. His highest in a 72-hole event was 298 at the 2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational

"It happens to us all," said world number one Woods, who had triumphed three times in his previous four starts on the PGA Tour. "I will go home next week and practice.

"It's just one of those weeks. This week I obviously didn't putt well. I had bad speed all week. I thought the greens didn't look that fast, but they were putting fast. I could never get the speed of them."

The second major of the year, the June 13-16 U.S. Open at Merion in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, is fast approaching and Woods gave a succinct reply when asked which areas of his game needed improving.

"Everything," said the 37-year-old American, who won the most recent of his 14 major titles at the 2008 U.S. Open.

"You want everything clicking on all cylinders, especially at the U.S. Open, because everything is tested in the U.S. Open."

AMONG THE BACK-MARKERS

Woods began the final round among the back-markers for a second day in a row and ran into trouble when he triple-bogeyed the par-three 12th after taking two shots to escape from a terrible lie in a greenside bunker, then three-putted.

"I was just trying to put the ball against the face on the upslope on the other side so I had a chance to spin the next one," he said of his first bunker shot.

"And it actually rolled back on the bottom where there's no sand. I hit a decent shot and obviously it skipped by. And the first putt was awful, just bad speed. The second putt I pulled, as well."

Woods dropped another stroke at the par-four 14th before finally being rewarded with a birdie at the par-five 15th where he struck a wedge to four foot and buried the putt.

Woods had astonishingly recorded a bogey and two doubles there in the three previous rounds.

"I birdied in a conventional way, I guess," he said of the 15th. "With a wedge in there to about three-and-a-half feet behind it.

"Other times (this week) I had a chance to go for it (the green in two) and knock it on there and I didn't make very good shots."

He also bogeyed the 14th before picking up his first shots of the day at the 15th and 17th to reach the turn in two-over 38.

Woods fared a lot better on his back nine, sandwiching birdies at the second, fourth and fifth around a lone bogey at the third to come home in two-under 34.

"It wasn't like it was that far off today," he said of his overall game, having hit 12 of 14 fairways and 13 of 18 greens in regulation. "It was just one hole that cost me obviously a few shots."

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Julian Linden)

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Director Baz Luhrmann brought "The Great Gatsby" home on Wednesday for its Australian premiere, with box-office success for the Sydney-produced film bolstering hopes for the resurgence of the local film industry.

The film, set in 1920s New York and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby, is one of several international productions recently lured to Australia by federal government tax breaks and grants.

The ambitious third adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "great American novel" debuted at the Cannes Film Festival last week and has so far raked in $23.4 million, putting it in third place at the U.S. weekend box office behind "Star Trek into Darkness" and "Iron Man 3.

"We can take America's finest book and make a movie here in Australia," Luhrmann told reporters on the red carpet at the premiere. "I think this is our home. The crew, the actors, the state the government, everyone stood behind it."

A strong Aussie dollar made Australia an unpopular location for international film makers in recent years, but the government subsidies are burnishing its appeal.

"The Wolverine", starring Australian actor Hugh Jackman, recently completed filming in Sydney, while cameras are due to start rolling next on the Walt Disney Studios production of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

The last big productions filmed in Australia before that were the Matrix Trilogy and "Mission: Impossible II" in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Luhrmann's wife Catherine Martin created from scratch the sets that evoke 1920s New York in Sydney's Fox Studios.

Locations around New South Wales serve as backdrops, while the picturesque town of Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains, 100 km (60 miles) west of Sydney, stood in for Long Island.

"The Great Gatsby", which also stars Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire, has polarized critics but Luhrmann shrugged off the negative reviews.

"Fitzgerald was heavily criticized when he wrote the book. He was buying copies before he died just to make up his sales," Luhrmann said.

"Last week he sold more books than he ever did in his life and if that's because of the film then I'm all right with that."

(Writing by Elaine Lies and Jane Wardell; Editing by Miral Fahmy)

Most scientists would generally agree that the primary reason for peer review of grant applications is to identify the strongest research proposals based on the intrinsic scientific merit, hypotheses being tested, and feasibility or likelihood of success for the proposed study approach. David Irwin, Stephen Gallo, and Scott Glisson note in the article, Learning from Peer Review (), that the peer review process does much more than this to move science forward.

The authors, who manage peer review of research programs for government and foundation funding sources, report that a survey of reviewers conducted by the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS) found, "more than 70 percent felt that their participation in peer review was particularly useful in exposing them to emerging scientific areas and technologies." Indeed, many reviewers enjoy face-to-face panel meetings, as this type of meeting affords them time for interactions similar to those commonly found at professional scientific meetings and conferences.

Peer review is sometimes viewed as a mysterious process or a hurdle to be jumped in order to secure funding. "It shouldn't be viewed as a hurdle," states Irwin. "It is a mutually beneficial process that helps move science forward. It provides funders with essential information, but it also provides researchers whether as a reviewer or reviewee with a chance to carefully consider scientific questions, tools, techniques, and opportunities."

"Participation in the scientific peer review process is an exceptional opportunity for both new and seasoned faculty," states Glisson. Data show National Institutes of Health study section members have a higher success rate with their own applications than the general scientific community, with a current funding rate more than eight percent higher than the general success rate.

Gallo hopes that the broader benefits to science of peer review will be recognized. "It should be seen as an opportunity to share ideas, learn from others, and embrace the collective effort to move science forward."

The report in The Scientist is available at .

More information about AIBS is at .

SOURCE American Institute of Biological Sciences

"Cost is crucial for consumers trying to decide on a health plan that is right for them," said Betsy Imholz, Special Projects Director for Consumers Union."Covered California will make it dramatically easier for consumers to compare plans and make smart choices that fit their budget."

Millions of Californians will be able to compare plans easily and choose affordable, high-quality health insurance coverage starting this summer. Californians who aren't covered by their employer or through Medicare or Medi-Cal can apply for coverage from Covered California beginning on October 1, 2013.

The rates announced today, which are still under review by the Department of Managed Care and the Department of Insurance, cover a standardized, comprehensive benefits package that all participating insurers must provide regardless of health history. The standardized design will make it easy for consumers to make apples-to-apples comparisons of different plans based on cost and provider networks.

To increase affordability, the law provides sliding scale financial assistance to individuals and families making below 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (currently $44,680 for an individual, $92,200 for a family of four). Covered California is the only place in the state where consumers can use federal subsidies to reduce the cost of private insurance.

"The days of paying premiums and hoping your insurance will cover you if you get sick are coming to an end," said Imholz. "These rates will cover you for pre-existing conditions, chronic conditions and acute care. Covered California is bringing health and financial security to our families."

Covered California, a state authority, will act like a large purchaser for individuals and small businesses. Consumers can apply for coverage on the phone and via the website , which will also make it easier for Californians to understand their choices in the new marketplace.In-person assistance will also be available through community-based Assisters, to be announced in the coming months.

SOURCE Consumers Union

Weiner, the candidate who infamously resigned from the U.S. Congress two years ago in a sexting scandal, unveiled a video announcing his mayoral candidacy and a campaign logo on his website on Wednesday.

The logo is written in blue and orange - the colors of Weiner's beloved New York Mets baseball team. But the image of the skyline that forms its backdrop, while similar to iconic images of New York's Brooklyn Bridge, is actually that of Pittsburgh's Roberto Clemente Bridge.

The goof was spotted by several reporters and comparative images of the two bridges were widely circulated on Twitter. Weiner's campaign could not immediately be reached for comment, but the logo on Anthonyweiner.com has since been changed.

Weiner on Thursday evening is to face his Democratic rivals for the first time at a candidate's forum in the Bronx. Polls suggest he enters the race in second place, trailing City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. Voters remain ambivalent about whether he should be running for office.

Weiner, once a popular six-term Congressman representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens, resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives after admitting he had sent a close-up image of his underpants over Twitter and then lied about it repeatedly. The image had been intended to be sent as a private message to a woman.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Scott Malone, G Crosse)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Corporate researchers may be living on the moon by the time NASA astronauts head off to visit an asteroid in the 2020s, a study of future human missions unveiled on Thursday shows.

The study by Bigelow Aerospace, commissioned by NASA, shows "a lot of excitement and interest from various companies" for such ventures, said Robert Bigelow, founder and president of the Las Vegas-based firm.

The projects range from pharmaceutical research aboard Earth-orbiting habitats, to missions to the moon's surface, he said on Thursday, citing a draft of the report due to be released in a few weeks.

NASA intends to follow the International Space Station program with astronaut visits to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars about a decade later.

President Barack Obama's proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning October 1 requests $105 million for the U.S. space agency to begin work on a mission to find a small asteroid and reposition it around the moon for a future visit by astronauts.

But private companies, including Bigelow Aerospace, have more interest in the moon itself, Bigelow told reporters on a conference call on Thursday.

William Gerstenmaier, NASA's head of space operations, said on the call "it's important for us to know that there's some interest in moon activity and lunar surface activity."

"We can take advantage of what the private sector is doing" in areas such as space transportation, life support systems and other technologies needed for travel beyond the space station's 250 mile high orbit, he noted.

NASA typically completes its mission planning before looking at what partnerships and collaborations may be possible, Gerstenmaier added.

"We thought that this time we would kind of turn that around a little bit, that we would ask industry first what they're interested in ... where they see human presence that makes sense, where they see potential commercial markets."

Bigelow Aerospace surveyed about 20 companies as well as foreign space agencies and research organizations for the NASA study, which the company undertook at its own expense. Bigelow has made no secret of its ambition to own, lease and operate inflatable space habitats in Earth orbit and on the moon.

Bigelow handed a draft of the first part of the report to Gerstenmaier on Thursday, 40 days ahead of schedule. The second section, which probes mission planning and other aspects of potential public-private partnerships, is due this fall.

(Editing by Tom Brown and Richard Chang)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Lionsgate nabbed U.S. distribution rights to the crime drama "Blood Ties" from Worldview Entertainment, the studio said Wednesday from the Cannes Film Festival.

The film premiered at the French Riviera gathering this week and features Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Mila Kunis, Zo Saldana, and Marion Cotillard.

Lionsgate said it plans to release the picture through its sister company, Roadside Attractions. "Blood Ties" is a remake of the French film "Les Liens du sang," yet unspools in a distinctly American setting -- New York City in the height (or depth) of its 1970s urban dissolution.

The crime drama finds a middle-aged crook struggling to readjust to society after he is released from prison, where he was being punished for his role in a gangland murder. There's a fractured family dynamic at play, because the ex-convict's younger brother is a cop with a bright future on the force. The film explores the twin push and pull of family and criminality.

Reviews have been mixed, with Variety's Scott Foundas labeling it a "dramatically undernourished saga." Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman singled Owen's performance out for praise, calling it "mesmerizing."

Guillaume Canet ("Tell No One") directed from a screenplay he wrote with director James Gray ("We Own the Night").

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. CAA brokered the deal on behalf of Worldview Entertainment and Lionsgate was represented by Jason Constantine, the studio's president of acquisitions and co-productions, with Eda Kowan, SVP of acquisitions, and Wendy Jaffe, EVP of business and legal affairs.

Somehow I managed to misplace your cookbooklet. I have read that there is now a set of two of them. Would you please give me the ordering instructions? Thanks, Abby! -- JEAN IN RICHLAND, WASH.

DEAR JEAN: I get a lot of letters like yours and I'm glad to oblige. Once you start looking at "Cookbooklet II" you will see that a sweet tooth runs in my family. Many readers have told me the dessert recipes in my cookbooklets are great for entertaining, and actually save calories because they are divided among a greater number of people. The raw apple cake with caramel glaze serves 16! My booklets are sold as a set and can be ordered by sending your name and address, plus check or money order for $14 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price. Remember, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," and this recipe requires five or six of them. (Think of the fiber!)

My cookbooklet set contains more than 100 tasty recipes for soups, salads, appetizers, main courses and desserts that can be used when friends and families get together to celebrate holidays and special occasions.

I have been told by some readers that they have been used as the basis for Dear Abby-themed dinner parties. (The place cards were decorated with hearts and flowers, and the centerpiece was a "bouquet" of envelopes addressed to me.)

P.S. Your husband sounds like a sweetheart. My mother once said the secret to a lasting marriage is a husband who lasts, so feed him well and he will.

DEAR ABBY: I work in a skilled-care facility. I am also preparing for law school. Today one of my co-workers humiliated me in the presence of others by asking if I have been gaining weight. I giggled and said, "Probably."

She proceeded to say that I have gained "a lot" of weight in my "fat face" and told me to get on the scale so she could see how much. I told her it's none of her business.

She has done this to me and other co-workers before. Our supervisor likes her and doesn't reprimand her. How should I handle this? -- GETTING IMPATIENT IN ILLINOIS

DEAR GETTING IMPATIENT: Handle it by ignoring this unpleasant person and avoiding her whenever possible. So should any other co-worker she has offended. Any time she attempts to embarrass any of you, it should be reported to your supervisor's supervisor -- individually or en masse -- because the failure to act on your concerns is allowing a hostile work environment to exist.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

SEOUL (Reuters) - Overtaking Apple Inc as the world's leading maker of smartphones has stretched Samsung Electronics Co's in-house supply lines, and the South Korean firm is now courting some of its rival's main parts suppliers.

After costly courtroom battles over technology patents, the two gadget giants are now going head-to-head over securing the best supply of parts as they jostle to rule the $253 billion smartphone market. The two took 100 percent of the industry's profit in January-March, Canaccord Genuity data show.

Trampling on Apple's supply patch could make life tough for the U.S. firm as it prepares for its next product line-up including a cheaper iPhone for emerging markets such as China. Having Samsung muscle in on its suppliers could drive up costs and lead to component bottlenecks, disrupting product launches.

Samsung's huge in-house supply chain - providing parts from displays and powerful processors to memory chips and batteries - has been a core strength in its war for smartphone supremacy. As it now looks to widen its lead with products spanning both the high and cheap-and-cheerful ends of the market, Samsung's supplies have become stretched, prompting it to hunt elsewhere to ensure it isn't caught short.

"The next round of the post-patent battle for them will be over component supplies," said Lee Sun-tae, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities. "Who wins access to the best performing components in class in large quantity - that's the key ... and explains why Samsung is shopping for components more than ever."

SHARP AND SOUR?

Samsung has made overtures to traditional Apple partners such as Japanese display maker Sharp Corp and South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix. Samsung, which buys most of its mobile screens from its Samsung Display unit, last year placed orders with Sharp for high-resolution LCD screens for its popular Galaxy range of products, though it later canceled the order, said two people familiar with the matter, asking not to be named as the negotiations were confidential.

Sharp, in which Samsung bought a 3 percent stake earlier this year for $110 million, said this week it was seeking to boost sales to the Korean firm, potentially souring the Japanese company's ties with Cupertino, California-based Apple.

Samsung is also using more chips made by Qualcomm, another major Apple supplier, in its flagship Galaxy S, which went on sale late last month.

Some other suppliers who provide parts to both Apple and Samsung include Toshiba Corp in NAND memory chips, Sony Corp, in image sensors, and Corning Inc for its Gorilla Glass used in iPhones, iPads and Galaxy products, industry data show.

STMicroelectronics and Bosch, the only mass producers of pressure sensors used in navigation features, supply those parts for the Galaxy range, and could be tapped by Apple for future products, according to research firm iSuppli.

TINY OVERLAP, BIG IMPACT

For sure, Samsung still buys the majority of its components in-house, and the overlap with Apple on external suppliers is, so far, limited. BNP Paribas estimates that more than 80 percent of component profits generated by Galaxy S4 sales go to Samsung itself and its units.

But even a tiny overlap can be damaging as smartphones are constantly upgraded to more powerful computing and media devices - allowing users to take pictures, shoot video, play music, game online, watch TV and navigate - raising the need for more and smarter components.

"Any disruption in even small parts that you wouldn't think are really core, say headphones, can affect product launches," said Lee at NH Investment & Securities.

For example, Taiwan's HTC Corp, which has slipped out of the top-10 smartphone makers, reported a record-low quarterly profit last month after delaying the full launch of its flagship model due to a shortage of cameras.

"Having a single supplier carries a lot of risk. Bearing that in mind, Samsung may even consider using LCD along with OLED in its signature Galaxy S range to reduce its total reliance on Samsung Display," said Song Jong-ho, an analyst at KDB Daewoo Securities.

Samsung Display doesn't produce LCDs for smartphones so as it boosts sales at the lower end of market it needs to outsource LCDs. The Korean firm uses the more expensive OLED display only on its high-end models.

NOT SO DIFFERENT

Outsourcing more components could mean Samsung will lose some of its hardware differentiation - a big selling point for the Galaxy range - and be seen as just selling generic phones, say some analysts.

The Exynos 5 Octa processor, which Samsung touted as having 8 brains designed to maximize energy efficiency while multi-tasking, is not used in the S4 models sold in the United States. Instead, Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips will power the phone in that crucial market, with Exynos chips used in select markets such as South Korea and some European countries.

"Given that Qualcomm chips are also found in rival products, and the much-heralded launch of smartphones with flexible display appears to be delayed, I'm worried Samsung is losing its hardware differentiator," said BNP Paribas analyst Peter Yu.

Samsung says both Qualcomm and its own chips have passed its rigorous quality standards and both will provide satisfactory user experience. "We'll continue to resort to multi vendors to ensure smooth supply," Kim Hyunjoon, vice president of Samsung's mobile business, told analysts on a recent earnings call.

Samsung's Exynos processors accounted for around 30 percent of the S3, but that is likely to fall to around 10 percent in the S4, analysts said.

"Qualcomm's latest chips are getting good reviews from carriers, which I think forced Samsung to switch in favor of Qualcomm from Exynos in the S4," said KDB Daewoo's Song. "There's even a possibility Apple may drop its own processor and go for Qualcomm chips in some future devices."

FLEXI-TIME?

Losing some of its hardware appeal and taking longer than expected to come up with innovative products such as flexible or wearable devices are additional challenges for Samsung, which is getting only mixed reviews for its efforts to improve software capability to integrate better with hardware.

In a recent review of the S4, Walt Mossberg, a gadget expert for the Wall Street Journal, said Samsung's software was "often gimmicky, duplicative of standard Android apps, or, in some cases, only intermittently functional.

Despite the lukewarm reviews, consumers keep snapping up the S4, according to carriers. For the first time in at least three years, Samsung last year spent more on marketing than on research and development, seeking to pick up market share in the absence of new, competing models from Apple. And Samsung's operating profit is seen topping Apple's this quarter for the first time in years, J.P. Morgan analysts predict.

"There's not much left in terms of what you can do to really differentiate your product as everybody's thinking something similar - flexible or wearable," said NH Investment & Securities' Lee.

In late 2011, Samsung told analysts it planned to introduce flexible displays on handsets "some time in 2012, hopefully the earlier part than later", but a year later it said the technology was still "under development." It again demonstrated prototypes of flexible phones earlier this year, but executives now say they can't disclose the timing of flexible smartphones.

Rivals are also moving fast. LG Electronics Inc, the third-biggest smartphone maker in January-March on strong sales of its high-end Optimus G model, said last month it planned to introduce an unbreakable smartphone by the year-end.

(Additional reporting by Mari Saito and Reiji Murai in TOKYO; Graphic by Catherine Trevethan; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)