Jobs passed the reins to his right-hand man Tim Cook on Wednesday, saying he could no longer fulfill his duties.

Technology executives including Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt praised Jobs’ skills as an innovator and a business leader following the news on Wednesday.

But as the dust settles, industry insiders and analysts expect Jobs’ departure to ratchet up the competition, as Apple’s rivals look for fresh opportunities.

Samsung’s fortunes are most tied to Apple, both as a competitor and as a supplier of components.

The group also has a scale and an ability to react quickly that is rare in the sector.

“Even before Steve Jobs’ (resignation), Samsung was getting more and more optimistic that they can actually take on Apple in the smartphone arena,” said Mark Newman, a former director of strategy at Samsung, where he worked for six years.

“The game is really now Samsung’s to lose ... They are picking up market share because of the change in dynamics in the smartphone industry,” added Newman, now a senior analyst for global memory and consumer electronics at Sanford C Bernstein.

Samsung’s Galaxy range of smartphones and tablet computers running on Google’s Android operating system are seen as the key competitors to Apple’s iPhone and iPad, products which have changed the industry.

Taiwanese group HTC Corp, led by another well-known industry figure, Peter Chou, has seen sales of its handsets surge in the last few quarters and has a reputation for innovative flair.

Samsung this week unveiled four new cheaper smartphones targeting fast-growing emerging markets — again setting it on a collision course with Apple, which sources say is readying a cheaper, 8-gigabyte iPhone.

Hong Won-pyo, executive vice president of Samsung’s mobile division, told his team this week he was confident Samsung could soon overtake Apple in the smartphone market, according to a person at the meeting.

Hong was speaking just hours before Jobs made his announcement.

Apple and Samsung now scrap for the top spot in the smartphone market, having overtaken the market leader for the past decade, Finland’s Nokia, in the second quarter.

Samsung’s smartphone sales soared more than 500 percent in the second quarter, easily eclipsing Apple’s 142 percent growth, though Apple sold about 1 million more phones. Nokia sales fell 30 percent.

News of Jobs’ move helped Samsung shares rise 2.4 percent in Seoul on Thursday. The broader Korean market was up 0.6 percent.

“Investors were concerned that Apple would encroach into Android’s turf, but Jobs’ exit offers opportunities for Samsung to expand its smartphone market share at a time when Nokia is struggling,” said Jeon Nam-joong, a fund manager at Consus Asset Management, which owns shares in Samsung.

Samsung has already stormed past its Asian rivals. Its market value of around $110 billion is comfortably more than that of Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic combined — though still only a third of Apple’s.

Both Samsung and Apple will face increasingly stiff competition from new rivals in China and Taiwan, however.

Huawei Technologies, China’s top two telecommunications equipment makers, are looking to storm the smartphone market after hitting traditional network gear market.

Taiwanese group HTC is seen by many as the only phone maker able to innovate like Apple.

HTC has quickly risen to become the fifth largest smartphone vendor globally — and could benefit the most in this arena from any erosion of Apple’s dominance.

“HTC may fare better than Samsung, which is currently languishing with legal hassles regarding alleged patent infringement and injunctions in Europe,” analyst Richard Windsor said in a research note.