Not only that Apple is on the roll, it is wreaking havoc on its competitors and according to the latest report issued this week by global research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), the tech titan's second quarter smartphone numbers toppled perennial market leader Nokia of Finland.

For the last three months leading to the end of June, IDC said that Apple's iPhone shipped out 20.3 million units of the bestselling gadget, coming from the 18.7 million iPhones that the company sold from January to March this year.

On the other hand, Samsung Electronics of South Korea secured the spot next to the American company as the Asian giant sold 17.3 million of its Galaxy series smartphones, effectively enabling the company to zoom past Nokia after its number two finish during the first quarter, which saw Samsung shipping out close to 11 million units of new handsets.

Despite losing out to both Apple and Samsung in the smartphone segment of the mobile phone market, Nokia managed to sell 28.1 million of mobile phones in the same period, which IDC said is the combined numbers of the company's smartphone and feature phone sales for the second quarter of the current year.

Nokia's current overall figures provided the necessary boost for the Finnish firm to retain the general market lead but IDC noted that "given Apple's momentum in the smartphone market, it may not be a question of whether Apple will beat that milestone, but when."

Over the same period, Nokia witnessed its smartphone sales plunging to 16.7 million units as compared to the 24.2 millions the company shipped out during the first three months of 2011, highlighting the onslaught Apple is enjoying, which is largely anchored to the strong performance displayed by the iPhone 4.

And Samsung appears far from sleeping on its job as the South Korean firm ramps up its tightening competition with Apple by issuing new editions of handsets almost every month, according to IDC.

Marking the two companies heated rivalry is their equally fierce legal battles as both threw accusations of infringements that further boiled up the market's competition environment.

On its part, Nokia's catch up ploy lies on its alliance with software giant Microsoft Corporation, which will see the company ditching its ageing Symbian platform in favour of the Windows Phone 7 that it hopes would arrest the current dominance of Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

Another former market leader appears to be on a steady decline, said IDC, as the research firm reported that Canada's Research in Motion again saw dwindling sales numbers for its flagship product, the BlackBerry.

Once the favoured smartphones among global executives and a host of other users, BlackBerry sales plummeted consistently during the past few quarters as RIM scramble to introduce new models that could rival the current leadership of iPhone in the smartphone market.

RIM said that five new exciting smartphone models will be launched this week and observers are keeping watch if the units will actually be a hit or would follow the disappointing path taken by the company's PlayBook, its answer to Apple's blockbuster tablet computer, the iPad.