Entertainment
Would love to do de-glamourised roles: Athiya Shetty
New Delhi : Actress Athiya Shetty, who stepped into showbiz with Salman Khan’s production “Hero”, says she is not sceptical about going sans make-up in front of the camera, saying that she “would love to” do de-glamourised roles.
The actress, who has carved a name for herself in tinsel town for her acting skills as well as fashion quotient, asserts that getting in different moulds for movies with conviction is the challenge of the profession.
“I’m open to de-glam roles, in fact would love to do de-glamourous roles, if the role demands and wants different thing out of you. I think that is the challenge of being an actor to be able to pull off different roles,” Athiya told IANS.
The daughter of actor Suniel Shetty entered showbiz alongside actor Aditya Pancholi’s son Sooraj in “Hero” last year, and since then she has been in the news for many reasons including link-up rumours. Currently, there is speculation that she is dating actor Arjun Kapoor.
Ask her if stories about her personal life more than her professional life bother her, and Athiya is quick to say “no not at all”.
She added: “I don’t want to comment about it (link-ups) because as soon as I comment about it, it is taken into a complete different context so I would rather not comment about it.”
And as far as Arjun is concerned, Athiya says “I think he has a very busy life than thinking about this.”
Athiya, who is the brand ambassador of Maybelline New York, turned muse for designer Namrata Joshipura for the beauty brand’s show at the recently concluded Amazon India Fashion Week (AIFW) Autumn-Winter 2016 here.
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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