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While I never thought I’d ask “why did the power go out?” during the Super Bowl, I did have a number of questions going into the Big Game, including: 1) Which Brother Harbaugh will prevail? 2) Will Beyoncé redeem herself from “lip-sync-gate”? 3) How will consumers’ use their smartphones (companion, second screen) on Game Day? Well: These were the big questions that I was pondering, and for which I now have answers for: 1) John Harbaugh, 2) Yes, and 3) smartphone users kept their eyes affixed to the Big Screen, and periodically leveraged the immediacy and utility of their second-screens.

The kiss of death to any device is a dearth of apps. And quite how this is considered depends on who is marketing the issue, and when. For the longest time, OEMs have talked quantity over quality, as though having the most variations of a calculator app may actually make a difference to a consumer...

When you are one of Netflix’ 25 million U.S. streaming subscribers you take for granted how it works. Let me walk you through a conversation I had this past weekend. It went something like this...

The TV is evolving into a more complex device and the basic concept on turning it on and immediately watching TV could become a thing of the past. As consumers we’ve become conditioned to expect home screens on computers, tablets, and smartphones; TVs now look set to follow suit. New TVs from Samsung and Panasonic launch to a home screen rather than the last TV channel you were watching. This home, or launch page, is a customized experience based on recognition from a built-in camera.

Google and Apple have taken clearly different approaches to the smartphone market overall. On the one hand, Apple approaches the market from a hardware-centric perspective (after all, Apple fundamentally sells hardware), while Google outsources the hardware component, focusing instead on the content delivered by the hardware and related search and advertising opportunities. At the center of these two approaches are the smartphone-toting Connected Consumers who leverage the ecosystems, but there are clear differences between iOS and Android Connected Consumers when it comes to a wider brand loyalty beyond the device itself.

The Internet connected HDTV screen has so far failed to break beyond the bounds of its TV-centric heritage, with little use for the big screen beyond the obligatory video services. But the connection is being used to provide access to a far wider variety of alternative sources for video content. The latest NPD Connected Intelligence Application & Convergence report highlights that nearly six out of ten consumers who own a connected HDTV are accessing Over-the-Top (OTT) video services through the device.

Election Day had more than one winner, with traditional media outlets doing quite well in terms of an overall boost in usage. Notably apps continue to trail web use when it comes to news-seeker smartphone users…

In 1995, The Economist Newspaper Group launched the world’s first web-only publication, a hi-tech-focused magazine called d.Comm. The magazine basked in a short-term glow of being an innovator, blazing a futuristic trail, and then closed its doors due to a lack of advertising. 17 years later, does Newsweek’s bold step to go all-digital stand any better chance of success?

It’s no surprise that the smartphone has become central in the connected consumer’s daily communications, utility, and entertainment experiences. Over the past year, and, in step with device, network and content/app ecosystem improvements, the connected consumer is spending even more time on their phone. According to NPD’s Connected Intelligence SmartMeter when comparing monthly usage of minutes per day for August 2011 versus August 2012, Android smartphone users spent nearly one-fifth more time on their smartphones daily – 247 minutes, or over four hours versus 210 minutes or 3.5 hours.

Softbank has announced its purchase of Sprint, in a deal valued at $20 billion. This cash infusion will give Sprint a much-needed boost, ensuring that the company can continue with its current LTE network roll-out, which is key to the long-term success of the carrier.

But beyond the cash infusion, the benefits of the deal are a little more of a head-scratcher, with little-to-no synergies between Softbank and Sprint.