Samsung now controls 1/3 of the smartphone market after a record quarter that saw them ship 50.2 million smartphones, according to a report released Thursday by research group IDC.

That figure nearly doubles their market share from the same quarter a year earlier, when they stood at 17% and trailed rival Apple by 2%. It also nearly doubles the current market share of Apple, which has seen its market share decline by 2% from a year earlier to stand at the 17% figure that Samsung held a year ago, and which Samsung is surely happy to relinquish. Apple shipped 26 million iPhones during the second quarter.

The record quarter for Samsung, which saw them post a profit of $5.9 billion, may not even be the peak of their run, according to the report. With the iPhone 5 not expected until the 4^th quarter (though some rumors place it as possibly arriving late in the 3^rd quarter), IDC expects the next quarter to be Samsung's best yet, with sales of the Galaxy SIII peaking.

What they aren't so sure of is how sales will fare after the release of the iPhone 5. While any analyst and their technology savvy (or not) grandma can predict a dropoff for Samsung's world-beating smartphone at that time, just how steep the drop will be is anyone's guess.

With Samsung and Apple controlling 50% of the smartphone market during the last quarter, there wasn't much marketshare pie left to be split among the other smartphone manufacturers. Nokia was 3^rd with a disappointing 6.6%, a decline from the 15% they enjoyed a year ago, despite having a major new smartphone release, the Lumia 900, during the quarter.

HTC Corp. was 4^th at 5.7%, also experiencing a large drop from the same period a year ago, while ZTE Corp. came in 5^th with a 5.2% slice of the pie, the only other company in the top 5 to gain market share from the year ago period, when they stood at just 1.8%.

Are you at all surprised by Samsung's incredible quarter? Has Apple made a major tactical error by waiting as long as they have to release the iPhone 5? Who wins the smartphone battle for the last half of the year? Let us know in the comments.