Entertainment
Ambanis host musical evening ahead of Akash, Shloka’s wedding
A musical evening — a fairly “private affair” — with around 1,600 guests in attendance at the Ambani residence Antilia here on Monday kickstarted the pre-wedding celebrations of Akash Ambani and Shloka Mehta.
Akash is the son of Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani, while Shloka is the youngest daughter of diamond merchant Russell Mehta.
The guests were invited by the groom’s parents Mukesh and Nita Ambani for a musical concert, followed by dinner on Monday.
Antilia was decked up with flowers for the occasion, for which the dress code was Indian Traditional.
On Tuesday, Akash’s sister Isha’s in-laws, the Piramals of diversified conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd, will host a special evening for the bride and groom. Guests have been suggested to flaunt Indian/Western cocktail wear.
These celebrations precede a March 7 ‘Mala and Mehendi’ function at the Dome, NSCI, Worli, on the evening of March 7.
The wedding on March 9 will be held at the Jio World Centre, Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC). This will be preceded by an ‘assembly of baraat’ at around 3.30 p.m. at Trident Hotel, BKC, followed by ‘baraat swagat and high tea’ at 6.30 p.m. and ‘Hasta Melap’ at 8.01 p.m. and then dinner.
A day before the formal wedding reception on March 11, a night of celebrations will be held at the Jio World Centre.
The main galas are likely to attend to be attended by a slew of guests from the Bollywood, political and sports world.
Even as Isha’s pre-wedding and wedding functions last year kept the social media abuzz last year, guests have been urged to refrain from sharing any event pictures, video or audio recordings on social media.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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