Critics and supporters who have question the wisdom of Lenovo’s deal for Motorola Mobility may have to eat some crow.

“Lenovo + Motorola = Winning Combination?”

So reads a new report from research firm Juniper, which shows that in the first quarter Lenovo and Motorola Mobility smartphones ate into the global market shares of No. 1 Samsung anf No. 2 Motorola.

Lenovo is buying the Motorola group from Google for $2.8 billion, pending regulatory approval.

“Motorola announced that it sold some 6.5 million smartphones in Q1 2014, driven by its best-selling smartphone, the Moto G,” the research firm reported. “Juniper estimates that the combined Motorola-Lenovo smartphone shipments for Q1 2013 exceeded 20 million, putting the joint entity into a third place.”

It may be months before regulatory approval is won for the deal that would create a blend of Lenovo and Motorola smartphone products, although Lenovo has said it would keep Motorola’s brand identity.

There’s another location connection that is trying to cash in on Motorola growth. Among the Motorola G sellers is Bandwidth.com, a growing wireless service provider based in Raleigh.

As Motorola and Lenovo grew (with Lenovo phones not even available in the U.S.), Samsung and Apple shares declined slightly to 30 percent and 15 percent (down 1 point and 3 points respectively).

Not that all the news was bad, however.

Juniper says overall smartphone sales increased 34 percent over the first quarter of 2013 to 286 million. But it cautioned that growth was up only 1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2013.

Samsung shipments grew to 85 million, up sharply from Q1 2013.

Apple “posted its best ever first quarter, shipping 43.7 million iPhones,” Juniper added. That’s a 17 percent jump from a year ago. However, shipments fell 14 percent from the fourth quarter.

Looking ahead to the rest of this year, Juniper warned that growth is likely to be lukewarm – and prices for phones are falling.

“This slowing growth is expected to continue in Q2 2014 due to the fact that in developed markets, the opportunity for growth is extremely limited,” Juniper said. “Conversely, in emerging markets where smartphone adoption is currently limited, growth will be fueled the continuing fall in retail prices for entry level smartphones.”

And where is Lenovo focused?

Emerging markets.