Samsung Electronics Co. was the world's fifth-largest PC monitor vendor last year, a report showed Friday, after posting robust growth in sales amid the pandemic-induced stay-at-home trend.

The South Korean tech giant shipped 11.7 million units of monitors in 2020, up 30.6 percent from a year ago, according to the report from market tracker International Data Corp. (IDC), with its market share increasing to 8.6 percent from 7.1 percent a year earlier.

Samsung posted the biggest yearly growth among the top five monitor brands, IDC data showed.

Global PC monitor shipments grew 8.3 percent on-year to 136.6 million units in 2020, the best yearly growth since IDC began to track the market in 2008.

Dell Technologies Inc. defended its top status in 2020, although its market share dropped to 19.3 percent from 21 percent a year earlier after its shipments dropped 0.1 percent on-year to 26.4 million units.

China's TPV Technology Ltd. was the runner-up with a market share of 14.1 percent after shipping 19.2 million monitors in 2020, up 9.3 percent from a year ago.

HP Inc. came in third with a market share of 13.5 percent, down from 14.8 percent in 2019, while Lenovo Group Ltd. took the four spot with a 10.5 percent share, down from 10.7 percent a year ago.

The United States overtook China as the world's largest PC monitor market last year, IDC said. It added that North America and Europe will lead the global market to grow 8.7 percent in 2021.

"Amidst the surging demand, production has had issues so some markets remain short of stock, and we can expect more fulfillments for back orders through much of this year," IDC research manager Jay Chou said. "Beyond 2021, we believe the market will settle into a faster replacement cycle that is based on a higher attach rate to notebooks and a more active usage model inside the home." (Yonhap)