Entertainment
Filmfare Awards: Sooraj Pancholi receives Best Debut Award
Mumbai: Sooraj Pancholi, who started his career with superstar Salman Khan’s production “Hero”, is delighted about receiving the Filmfare Best Debut (Male) Award. He has thanked his fans for the “support”.
“I thank all the people who have supported me! Each and everyone of you! I coudn’t have done this without you,” tweeted Sooraj after winning the award on Friday night.
The event saw actress Bhumi Pednekar bag the Best Debut (Female) for her film “Dum Laga Ke Haisha”.
Ranveer Singh won the Best Actor Award for his role as 18th century Maratha Peshwa Bajirao I in “Bajirao Mastani”, while Deepika Padukone grabbed the Best Actress Award for her role of a doting daughter in “Piku”.
Kangana Ranaut won the Critics’ Choice Best Actor (Female) Award for “Tanu Weds Manu Returns”, and megastar Amitabh Bachchan won the Critics’ Choice Best Actor (Male) award for “Piku”.
“Time is short…so Best Actor Critics’ at Filmfare for ‘Piku’…happy and content,” tweeted Amitabh.
The Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Female) honour went to Priyanka Chopra for “Bajirao Mastani”, while Anil Kapoor took home the Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Male) Award for “Dil Dhadakne Do”.
The elegant and evergreen Moushumi Chatterjee was decorated with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the gala, where “Bajirao Mastani” was named the Best Film and Sanjay Leela Bhansali received the Best Director award for the historical period drama.
The Best Music Award went to Ankit Tiwari, Meet Bros Anjjan and Amaal Mallik for the film “Roy”, while Irshad Kamil bagged Best Lyrics Award for the track “Agar tum saath ho” from the film “Tamasha”.
Arijit Singh lifted the Best Playback Singer (Male) Award for his song “Sooraj dooba” in the film “Roy”, and the Best Playback Singer (Female) went to Shreya Ghoshal for the track “Deewani mastani” in the film “Bajirao Mastani”.
In the Critics’ Choice category, the Best Film award was received by “Piku”.
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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