Smartphones Fail as Super Bowl Second Screen

During Super Bowl XLVI, smartphones did not live up to expectations as a second companion screen to the football watching experience, according to the NPD Group's Connected Intelligence SmartMeter, which tracks consumer use of smartphone applications, websites, communications, and content services.Football apps, such as those from ESPN and the NFL, showed a downward trend compared to the playoffs two weeks ago. Conversely, NFL.com showed a significant spike in traffic, disputing the claim that apps are now dominating the market at the expense of the web. Neither the Giants' nor Patriots' apps showed significant usage during the game and were not in the top sports apps on Sunday.