If you notice every other person around you with a smartphone these days, you’re not alone. Smartphone sales will surpass worldwide PC sales by the end of 2011, says a recent report by RBC analyst Mike Abramsky.

While mobile phone sales overall have decreased, smartphone sales have gone up. Mobile phone sales worldwide hit 286.1 million units in the second quarter of 2009, down 6% year-over-year, reports Gartner. Smartphone sales passed 40 million units, a 27% increase from the same period last year.

In the U.S., smartphones reached 28% of overall purchases, which was an increase of 47% from the second quarter last year. The iPhone 3G and the BlackBerry Curve were the top-selling smartphones for the quarter, NPD said.

With smartphone sales expecting to continue their upward trend, the major PC players are looking for action. Beyond Apple, companies like Dell are prepping to fight it out in the smartphone circuit. In recent weeks Asus has teamed up with Taiwan’s Chunghwa Telecom to start selling the Nuvifone M20, a Windows Mobile smartphone. Meanwhile, Acer plans to send its three latest smartphones to market in September, with two of the new handsets priced for the recession