Samsung Electronics said there had been a delay in making the blue variant of its new flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S3, which launched on Tuesday, meaning some customers faced a two to three week wait for delivery.

"In order to meet the highest internal quality standards and to provide the best quality Galaxy S III to customers, a short supply of Pebble Blue version is expected in some regions in the next 2-3 weeks," the company said in a statement.

"Samsung is working hard to ensure that customers will get the Pebble Blue colored devices as soon as possible."

The Galaxy S3, which is also available in white, is the newest model of the smartphone that helped Samsung topple Apple as the world's largest smartphone maker.