IDC: Apple is king of the fast-growing smartphone market

The latest numbers from IDC are out and the research firm confirms what other firms have been reporting: Apple is now the largest smartphone maker in the world based on sales for the second quarter.

Even without the help of a brand new iPhone, Apple was able to ship 20.3 million iPhones in the quarter and that was good enough to help it be the leader, IDC said. The company now accounts for 19.1 percent of the market, which is a whopping 141.7 percent increase from the same period last year. The upcoming launch of the iPhone 5 should help Apple easily surpass those numbers next quarter.

Buoyed by the success of the Galaxy S II, Samsung was able to ship 17.3 million smartphones in the quarter, good for 16.2 percent of the market. This may be the last quarter where we get an accurate figures to compare because Samsung said it will no longer reveal exact shipments of phones and tablets in future quarters. That’s a shame, as the Galaxy S II should land in the United States before too long and that will definitely boost sales.

The once-mighty Nokia is still chugging along with 16.7 million smartphones sold in the quarter but it experienced a 30 percent market share drop compared to last year. Will Windows Phone Mango be its salvation? Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out.

Research In Motion shipped 12.4 million BlackBerry smartphones for the quarter but HTC is right on its tail with 11.7 million. While RIM has a bevy of new BlackBerry 7 devices around the corner, I wouldn’t be surprised to see HTC surpass the BlackBerry maker in the not-too-distant future.

Almost all the companies were helped by the overall growth in smartphone adoption, as IDC said the global market grew 65.4 percent year over year.

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