Entertainment
Taylor Swift leads 2015 Billboard Music Awards
Las Vegas: Singer Taylor Swift dominated the 2015 Billboard Music Awards with eight wins, including Top Artist and Top Female Artist awards, while debuting her star-packed music video “Bad blood” to open the show.
Co-hosted by Ludacris and Chrissy Teigen, the award show took place here at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday.
Leading the nominees with 14 nods, Swift also took home the trophy for Top 200 Album, Top Digital Artist, Top Billboard 200 Artist, Top Streaming Song, Top Hot 100 Artist and Billboard Chart Achievement Award (fan-voted), reports dailymail.co.uk.
Another big winner of the evening was boyband One Direction, who clinched the trophy for Top Touring Artist and Top Duo/Group. But the moment was overshadowed by their friend and former bandmate Zayn Malik’s absence.
Other singers who took home multiple awards included Sam Smith, Pharrell Williams and Iggy Azalea.
Smith, who has been recovering from a throat surgery and was not able to attend the awards show, won the titles for Top Male Artist, Top New Artist and Top Radio Songs Artists.
Meanwhile, Williams won the prize for Top R&B Artist category which featured the likes of Beyonce Knowles and Chris Brown. His 2014 solo set “G I R L” won Top R&B Album and his smashing hit “Happy” won Top R&B Song.
As for Australian rapper Azalea, she earned the Top Rap Artist, Top Streaming Artist and Top Rap Song.
Singer Justin Bieber won the Top Social Artist award in a competition from Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande and Swift.
The event ended with a performance by rapper Kanye West, who was introduced on stage by his sisters-in-law Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner.
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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