Samsung Electronics, the world's largest handset maker, was feared to face sales ban on its flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone in the United States following the ruling that blocked sales of the Galaxy Nexus model, market watchers said Tuesday.

On Apple's request, the U.S. District Court of California issued a preliminary injunction against the Nexus model last Friday. The iPhone maker claimed that Samsung infringed on several patents, including Google's search function that show results from multiple sources.

The Nexus model is viewed as the reference phone that runs on Google's latest Android operating system Ice Cream Sandwich for the first time. As the Galaxy S3, the latest version of Samsung's Galaxy series, also runs on the Google's version 4.0 operating system, concerns spread that the new flagship Galaxy model may face similar sales ban in the U.S.

"Apple is expected to ask the U.S. court to issue the preliminary injunction against the Galaxy S3, citing the patent infringement such as the Google's unified search function. Worries exist that the U.S. court ruling on the Galaxy Nexus will have influence on the Galaxy S3," Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment & Securities in Seoul, said in a report.

Chio Nam-kon, an analyst at Dongyang Securities, said that Apple was reported to have requested the U.S. court on June 7 to issue the preliminary injunction against the Galaxy S3 together with the Galaxy Nexus, noting that some patent experts forecast Apple to win the court ruling banning sales of the Galaxy S3.

Meanwhile, the sales ban on the Nexus model was expected to have little impact on Samsung's profits. "Galaxy Nexus sales in the North American region was weak compared with other models such as Galaxy Note and Galaxy S2. The impact from the sales ban will be limited," said Roh.

Samsung's operating profit for the second quarter was expected to reach a fresh record high. Park Young-joo, an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities in Seoul, forecast that Samsung' s second-quarter operating profit will reach a new quarterly high of 6.6 trillion won (5.8 billion U.S. dollars), up 13.4 percent from three months earlier. Revenue was projected at 50.7 trillion won during the April-June period, up 12.1 percent from the previous quarter.