iPhone Is Now Top-Selling Smartphone

In the technology world, no company has been hotter than Apple. That trend continues as the research firm IDC reports Apple has supplanted Nokia as the world's top smartphone manufacturer in the second quarter of 2011.

According to IDC, Apple shipped 20.3 million iPhones during the second quarter, giving it a 19.1 percent market share. That achievement is impressive when you consider that in the second quarter of 2010, Apple shipped 8.4 million iPhones, and had a 13 percent share of the smartphone market.

In the last year the iPhone has increased its stature as the must-have mobile device. It didn't hurt that in the first quarter of this year, Verizon Wireless – with its much larger subscriber base – started selling the iPhone in the U.S. Prior to that U.S. consumers could only use an iPhone on AT&T's network.

iPhone 5

The iPhone 4, Apple's latest model, is growing a bit long in the tooth by technology standards, since it was introduced 13 months ago. Apple has not confirmed when or if it will issue an update, but rumors suggest the iPhone 5 will be out by October.

While Apple has a good second quarter, so did Samsung. The equipment maker was second in sales with shipments of 17.3 million units, for a 16.2 percent share of the market. It's improvement over the second quarter of 2010 was even more dramatic, with shipments rising 380 percent.

Of course, Apple achieved its numbers on one model – the iPhone. Samsung produces and sells a variety of different model smartphones. IDC said Samsung achieved most of its success, however, on its high-end devices, such as the Galaxy S.