Smartphones supplanted personal computers as the bestselling gadget in 2011, with analysts crediting both Apple and Samsung for creating 'hero' handsets that delivered record-breaking results.

According to tech research firm IDC, global consumers purchased close to 158 million smartphones last year, propelling the market to grow by 54.7 per cent year-on-year, with Apple's iPhone 4S and Samsung's Galaxy SII and Galaxy Nexus attracting most of the buys.

"The launch of Apple's iPhone 4S played a key role in smartphone growth to capture pent-up demand, and smartphone launches from other vendors also provided a broad selection to meet varying preferences and budgets," IDC's Ramon Llamas said on its latest report.

The past two years, according to IDC analyst Kevin Restivo, saw the smartphone industry expanding by 61.3 per cent, with notable acceleration in the last quarter of 2011.

IDC also noted that smartphones started outselling PCs during the last three months of 2010 and have been relentless since then.

While Apple's iPhone editions triggered the declining sales of PCs around the world when the first version was introduced in 2007, Restivo said that Google's entry into the fray, with its open-source Android mobile platform, ramped up the onslaught coming from mobile handsets.

PC vendors started feeling the pinch shortly, with the sector's sales further dipping when Apple released the iPad in 2009, analysts said.

It became an exclusive competition between Apple and Google afterwards, with the latter being represented by mobile phone makers that centred their products on the Android OS.

While Apple focused on the high-end iPhones, Google allowed the use of Android to power entry-level smartphones that led to the dominance of phones either running on iOS or Android.

Cheaper smartphones on Android platform were welcomed by global consumers, IDC noted, paving the way for Apple and Android phones to further shore up smartphones sales over the past two years.

"A growing number of sub-$250 device offerings, based on the Android operating system, have allowed Google's hardware partners to grow smartphone volumes and expand the market concurrently," Mr Restivo told The Guardian.

That sales explosion was capped in the last quarter 2011, as Apple and Samsung, which also emerged last year as the leading smartphone producers, sold 37 million and 36 million units respectively, the IDC report said.

To underscore the two companies' gains after only 12 months, Apple registered 128 per cent hike on its Q4 2011 sales while Samsung saw its sales figures in the same period climbing by near 400 per cent, IDC said.

For the whole of 2011, IDC said that it tracked total of 491 million smartphones shipped in the period, with Apple and Samsung securing the number one and two positions on the strength of their 19.1 per cent and 19 pe rcent overall shares respectively.

The rest of the competitors were practically made to scramble on what were left on the pie, with former industry leaders Nokia and Research in Motion (RIM) relegated to the cellar on respective shares of 15.7 per cent and 10.4 per cent for last year, according to IDC.

RIM has been adamant on sticking on its in-house platform while Nokia had decided last year to gamble on Microsoft's Windows Phone, with the two hoping to survive and make a dent in 2012 employing their own ecosystem.