The Samsung Galaxy S3 has officially launched in 28 countries today across Europe and the Middle East. Although some retailers are saying that they will not necessarily have stock of the phone available immediately, Samsung claims that it has in fact launched the device.

Samsung has also claimed that the much anticipated Android device and follow up to the successful Galaxy S2 will be offered in a total of 245 countries by 296 carriers by July. Samsung is rolling the phone out internationally at a rapid rate – something that Apple could learn from.

There does seem to be some issues with the blue versions, so the initial batch will all be the white ones. Reports also suggest that Samsung has already hit 9 million pre-orders for the new king of Android phones – to put that in context, the Galaxy S2 reached 20 million sales after 10 months.

If you were hiding behind a rock, the Galaxy S3 is the latest smartphone from Samsung, and the specs look incredible. Expect a 4.8 inch 1280×720 display, 8 megapixel camera, 32GB storage and a massive quad core 1.4GHz “Exynos” processor. The phone also ships with some great new features like eye-tracking (which prevents the screen from switching off while looking at it), and S-Voice, Samsung’s answer to Apple’s Siri personal assistant software.

The phone will be plastered by Samsung’s skin over Ice Cream Sandwich however. If you prefer a clean Ice Cream Sandwich experience, we still recommend the Galaxy Nexus (see our review here).

Expect the Galaxy S3 to land in SA in July 2012. We will be at the launch.