Apple’s iPhone held onto a 13.7% share of global smartphone unit sales in the second quarter, outpacing Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, which now claims just 9% of the market, according to Canalys.

“Apple has revolutionized the smart phone sector, leapfrogging more experienced rivals,” Canalys senior analyst Pete Cunningham said in the company’s report. Sales in the second quarter did not include much of the surge in new sales spurred by the release of the iPhone 3GS.

In the North American market, the iPhone grabbed a 23% share of smartphones sold, despite being tied to a single carrier in the US. Apple’s US debut occurred months before sales were expanded to other countries, and international sales of iPhone really began a year

later with the launch of the iPhone 3G. RIM held a commanding 52% share of US smartphones.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Nokia maintained a 64% share while Apple took second place with 13.6%, followed by third place RIM with 10.3%. Those numbers indicate Apple has been much better at competing internationally against Nokia than RIM has, despite its having been in the smartphone business for nearly a decade compared to Apple’s barely two year old iPhone assault.

Worldwide, Nokia still leads smartphone sales with 44.3% of the market, but that represents a significant slide over the last few years. As recently as 2006, Nokia’s Symbian platform accounted for over 72% of smartphones sold; now it represents just 50.3%.

Back when Apple re-introduced Push Notification at the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Preview Event, Scott Forstall claimed that, unlike background multitasking that could cause an 80% drop in battery life, Push Notification would only cause a 20% drop. While some debated the truth (or truthiness) of his claims, it did set the expectation that users running Push Notification-enabled apps would see lower battery life, and gave an indicator of just how much less.

So, while it too a while, now that we finally have Push Notification, and some of the more popular messengers and games are implemented it, how’s your battery life doing?
Are you seeing a hit compared to your pre-Push Notification days, and if so, is it in the 20% range? Let us know which iPhone you have, how often you’re getting Push Notifications, and how your battery is holding up!

Granted, there are not many apps in the App Storethat are supporting Push Notifications at this point, and for some that may be leading to a little question as to how to enable the notifications.

Well, to begin with, the “Notifications” listing in your iPhone’s settings will not appear as an option until you launch an app that has that support. In my case, you can see (in the below image) that app is Tap Tap Revenge 2.6.

Anyway, simply launch an app that has support for Notifications then go back to your iPhone’s settings and then you will notice a new listing called “Notifications” that will be listed as “On.”

Once there, you can then go in and customize the settings on an app by app basis.