A small band of upstarts is chipping away at Google's mighty Android, hoping one day to overthrow the system that runs eight in 10 smartphones sold worldwide. Mozilla's Firefox OS and the Samsung-promoted Tizen staked a small claim to the market at the industry's largest fair, the February 24-27 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. If there is a threat to Android's dominance, however, it could emerge from a slowdown in saturated smartphone markets and the birth of a new interest in smart watches, bracelets and glasses, analysts say. Android powered 78.4 percent of all smartphones sold in 2013, according to industry analyst Gartner Inc. Apple's iOS mopped up most of the rest, taking 15.6 percent.



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