Apple sold more smartphones than any other vendor in the second quarter of this year, according to analyst firm IDC.This puts Apple ahead of Samsung and Nokia, with its Iphone accounting for more than 19 per cent of the 106.5 million smartphones shipped globally.Meanwhile, rapidly sinking Nokia claimed 15.7 per cent market share, dropping to third place behind Samsung, which itself took 16.2 per cent of the market.The report comes as global shipments of all smartphones rose more than 65 per cent from the same period a year earlier. Analysts at IDC estimate world-wide smartphone shipments for this year will expand 55 per cent over 2010 asvendors continue to launch devices with even faster processors and larger screens.Nokia’s embarrassing decline comes to light after earlier this week it made a desperate attempt to sell more phones byannouncing on its blog that its handsets are in fact versatile. The handset maker used to sell more smartphones than any of its rivals.Nokia has alsodecided to use numbers instead of letters to classify its handsets, after apparently discovering that its Eseriesbusinessphones are being used by consumers as well. This follows the launch of the Nokia 500, a low cost Symbian smartphone.While Apple and Samsung have surged into the lead, IDC warned that the competition isn’t far behind. IDC analyst Kevin Restivo said, “There is no runaway leader in the market. There could easily be further Top 5 vendor changes to come.”Meanwhile,RIM’sBlackberry has fallen further behind its competition, ranking fourth in world-wide shipments according to IDC.”The company has released only a few new models so far this year,” IDC said. “That has allowed its competitors to grab mindshare and market share with multiple new models.”