Lenovo may lead the world in PC sales as it has done for going on two years now, but when it comes to PC monitors – well, it’s No. 5 and losing market share, according to a new report from research firm IDC.

Even though shipments increased strongly in Japan (16 percent) and Western Europe (5 percent), Lenovo’s first-quarter market share declined to 7.8 percent from 8.2 percent a year ago, IDC reports.

Sales declined 4.5 percent to 2.64 million from 2.77 million.

In fact, Lenovo’s shipments plunged when compared to three of its other top competitors.

Overall, monitor shipments declined a mere 0.4 percent from a year ago and exceeded IDC’s expectations with 33.7 million shipped.

[LENOVO ARCHIVE: Check out nine years of Lenovo stories as reported in WRAL TechWire.]

A decline in PC monitor popularity is hardly surprising, giving overall drops in PC sales as more people embrace tablets and smartphones. And Lenovo has embraced that seismic shift, evolving to a “PC-plus” company with growing reliance on devices other than laptops and desktops.

But PC monitors are far from dead. in fact, IDC had expected only 31 million to be shipped this past quarter – and big screens (21 inches or larger) are gaining in popularity with a market share of 20.5 percent. Apparently bigger is better. IDC says the big screens have been No. 1 in shipments for each of the last six quarters.

Interestingly, while touch screen monitors are rare worldwide (0.4 percent market share), they represent 32.8 percent of shipments in the U.S.

And HP – Lenovo’s closest overall rival for PC sales – leads the U.S. touch-screen market at 35.1 percent share.

Dell is No. 1 in monitor shipments followed by Samsung, HP, LG and Lenovo in that order. Dell’s shipments grew 13 percent, HP’s 8.9 percent and LG’s 2.7 percent. Samsung shipments declined most of all at 8.6 percent.

IDC offers more details and commentary online.